HUDSONVILLE, Mich. – The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) has announced their 2022-23 awards for the women's basketball season. The Trine University women's basketball team had a pair of representatives on the First Team in Sidney Wagner and Makayla Ardis, with Wagner also selected as the MIAA Most Valuable Player.
Wagner becomes just the second MIAA MVP in program history after Brandi Dawson received the honor three times from 2016-19. It is the seventh consecutive season in which multiple student-athletes from the team made First Team All-MIAA. The duo navigated the team to a 20-5 overall record and a 14-2 mark in MIAA play to win shares of back-to-back regular season conference titles.
Wagner, a sophomore guard from Warsaw, Indiana, led the MIAA in scoring over the course of 16 conference games at 17.0 points per game. She was second in steals (2.2), fourth in both field goal percentage (56.6%) and three-point field goal percentage (43.1%) and seventh in assists (2.9) in league play. Over the course of the entire season, Wagner has a stat line of 14.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.1 steals per game with a field goal percentage of 51.6%.
Wagner's career-high 29 points helped the Thunder to topple at the time #1 Hope College for the second straight year in Holland, 76-64. She was 11-of-17 from the field, buried three three-point field goals and distributed six assists to go with her scoring totals. Wagner was chosen as the MIAA Athlete of the Week and United States Basketball Writers Association (USWBA) Division III National Player of the Week for her efforts. Her 24-point outing in a win at Calvin University helped her notch her second MIAA Athlete of the Week award for the season on February 13. Later that week, Wagner would record a double-double at Saint Mary's College with 23 points and a career-high 10 steals (tied for the second-most in program history).
Ardis, a senior guard from Lake City, Michigan, has secured her first career All-MIAA honor with a First Team selection. After the graduation of three all-conference players from one season ago, Ardis found a role as more of a scoring threat in 2022-23 with a career-high 11.9 points per game this year. Her efficiency fueled high scoring nights as the senior knocked down shots at 47.5% and three-point field goals at 46.1%. Those values are good for seventh and second in the MIAA. During conference play, she bettered those numbers and was fifth in scoring (13.9 PPG), sixth in field goal percentage (51.6%) and second in three-point field goal percentage (51.4%).
Against Hope at home, Ardis exploded for a career-high 29 points on 9-of-16 from the field and four makes from beyond the arc. Once the calendar flipped to 2023, she was able to find her stride with nine consecutive games reaching double figures to start the year. Standing at 5-foot-5, you do not expect Ardis to be a primary rebounder for the team, but she knows how to hunt the basketball off the glass. She had three games this season with a career-high 11 rebounds, including double-doubles versus the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Adrian College.
Postseason play begins on Friday, February 24 for the Trine women's basketball team. The Thunder face Calvin University in the two versus three seed matchup in the MIAA Tournament Semifinals beginning at 5:30 p.m. The game takes place on a neutral floor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.