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The 1991-92 season was a watershed year for Viking wom­ en's basketball. Sixth year head coach Greg Bruce (101-64) directed his players to the championship of the newly-founded Continen­ tal Divide Conference before they rode their winning ways (27-2) into their first-ever entry in the NCAA Division II na­ tional tournament. A premonition of Portland State's success came early in late November when the Viks, as the only Division II team in the field, participated in and emerged as the first-place win­ ners at the University of Arizona's tourney, defeating the Wildcats and Richmond in Tucson. The Vikings' only losses of the five month long campaign came against Hawaii Dec. 14-15. After that, PSU romped over conference and non-CDC opposition alike. As host school for its own TCI/Cypress Inns Raindrop Clas­ sic, PSU took first again while beating Southern Utah and CSU-Sacramento. Beating Seattle Pacific 84-69 Feb. 13 locked up the Viks' first place finish in the CDC, the school's first-ever conference championship. Portland State also served as the host site for the national tournament's western regional playoffs and the home team didn't disappoint. Led by seniors Laurie Northrop (CDC Play­ er of The Year and a Kodak All-American), Angela Hewlett and junior transfer Sheri Stemple, PSU defeated Alaska-An- chorage 101-76 and UC-Davis 83-56. A week later, their quest for the Final Four continued when the Viks beat sec­ ond-round quarterfinal opponent St. Joseph's (Indiana) 83-62 in Portland. Fargo, North Dakota ended up being the exit point for Bruce's team. Before a record crowd of 6,131, the host Bison and North Central finalists (a Division II power) rolled to a 34-point win, 93-59 the night of March 27. It was the lowest point total PSU had mustered all season and took away much of the incentive garnered for the occasion of title contention. In the game for third place, PSU faced their New England counterparts Bentley College (Mass.) and were trailing at half by eight, 39-31. Early after the intermission, the Viks rallied to score 19 points and overtake the Falcons. All-Tournament se­ lection Stemple paced PSU's roster with 24 points and half as Kathy Schassen Alana Brown shoots in the midst of three defenders fromU of P. many rebounds in the game that the Vikings ended up win­ ning 72-69. In the course of the year, Northrop eclipsed former Viking Sheri Van Loo's all-time scoring title in a January match-up against Texas A & I. Hewlett, in two years on the Park Blocks, set individual records for most assists-per-game and estab­ lished herself in the record books as one of the country's leaders in assists given. Senior guard Trina Yungen also set a record for most consecutive games played in a Viking uni­ form. —Freeman Tong