ATHERTON, Calif. - The women's basketball team took a short trip up the highway to conference host Menlo College for the start of the 2019 GSAC Women's Basketball Championship Tournament. The Warriors faced the Vanguard Lions in the opening round, despite a strong three quarters, the Warriors dropped the Lions 71-64.

"I am very proud of how we prepared and came out to compete tonight," head coach Kurt Westendorp said.  "We had to play a complete game to beat Vanguard and we came very close to that tonight.  Down the stretch, we got some great looks we couldn't get to fall."

Strong out the gate, the Warriors took the lead from the start with a pair of buckets and would extend that margin by as much as double figures closing out the opening quarter up 21-11. But the Lions would answer back shortly after the start of the second quarter with a 13-0 run to take the lead before the 6-minute mark.

At the break, the Warriors would keep the deficit small, but the Lions would hold the two-point advantage, 34-32 at halftime.

The battle would continue as the lead would continue to flip between the Warriors and Lions in the third period, Jessup taking a three-point lead just a minute before the end of the quarter, but the Lions would manage to take the one-point lead headed into the final quarter of regulation, 47-46

The nationally-ranked Lions would show their endurance through the final quarter making an 11-2 run to open the first half of the 10-minute period. With less than 30 seconds left, the Warriors would get as close as 5 points, but it wouldn't be enough time as Jessup lost 71-64.

Leading Jessup offensively was senior Lily Hagerty with 13 points followed by Olivia Luu and Elizabeth Roark with 11 apiece. Miranda Zaragoza would continue to dominate the board with a total 10 rebounds, 6 on the offensive end.

The recently ranked 27th in the country Warriors will await their fate as the top 32-teams in the country will move on to the NAIA Women's Basketball Championship Tournament, selection show by the national office slated for Wednesday afternoon.

Westendorp has hope that their season is quite over yet, "We've proven throughout the year we can compete with the best teams in the country.  My hope is that we get an at-large berth to NAIA Nationals so we can compete again!"

***