Complete All-MIAA Men's Teams
Complete All-MIAA Women's Teams
HOLLAND -- Five Hope basketball players have been awarded all-conference honors by the MIAA highlighted by senior forward Lisa Hoekstra being named the women's most valuable player by the league's coaches.
Named first team women's honorees were Hoekstra and freshman center Amanda Kerkstra while honored on the men's first team for the second consecutive year was junior forward Ryan Klingler. Both Hoekstra and Kerkstra are from Grandville and graduates of Calvin Christian High School. Klingler is a hometown product who graduated from Holland High School.
Second team All-MIAA honorees from Hope are junior forwards Kristin Koenigsknecht of St. Johns (St. Johns HS) and Craig Veldman of Jenison (Jenison HS).
Hoekstra becomes the third Hope women's basketball player to achieve MIAA most valuable distinction. The others were Dina Disney (1990) and Kristin Carlson (1995). She led the Flying Dutch to the MIAA conference championship this season and an overall 21-5 record.
A three-time All-MIAA first team honoree, she ended as Hope's second all-time leading scorer with 1,249 points. This season she averaged a team-leading 14.4 points per game shooting 47% from the floor and 77% from the free throw line. She averaged just 1.9 turnovers per game while averaging 26 minutes per contest.
Kerkstra averaged 11.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game and led the conference in field goal accuracy in league games at 55%.
Klingler led the Flying Dutchmen in scoring for the second straight year, averaging 15.5 points per game. A small forward, he had the distinction of leading the MIAA in assists (5.1 per game) and steals (2.8 per game).
The Flying Dutchmen finished third in the MIAA this season and posted an overall 15-11 record for the second consecutive year.
This is the third year in-a-row that Koenigsknecht has been honored by league coaches. She was a first team All-MIAA pick as a freshman and has been a second team honoree the last two seasons. This season she became just the second Hope women's basketball player to score more than 200 points and grab 200 rebounds in a season, finishing with 210 and 226 respectively. She'll enter her senior season as Hope's third all-time leading rebounder with 727 behind only Kristin Carlson (943, 91-95) and DeeAnn Knoll (808, 84-88).
Veldman is being honored as an All-MIAA second team honoree for the second straight year. This season he averaged 13.1 points per game overall and lifted it to 15.2 in conference games. For the season, he averaged just 1.9 turnovers per game while averaging 29.3 minutes per contest.
Receiving coaches' honorable mention recognition from Hope were freshman Amy Baltmanis
of Paw Paw (Paw Paw HS) and senior Mark Bray of Plymouth (Plymouth-Canton
HS).