Kyla Fitzgerald/Photo via LRSC
This year’s Lake Region State College women’s basketball team has another player going to an NCAA program. Sophomore forward Kyla Fitzgerald announced on Monday that she’s committed to play at Ursuline, a Division II school.
Fitzgerald is the third member of the Royals’ women’s basketball team to move on to an NCAA school this year, joining Kelsey Crossan (DI Gardner-Webb) and Brooke Kleinig (DII St. Mary’s). That makes six Royals who became NCAA players under the tutelage of head coach Ryan Clark, who was recently hired as Minot State University’s new women’s basketball coach.
Interestingly, the three NCAA-bound Royals also happened to be the three Australians on the team. Counting Clark, all four Australians involved with the LRSC women’s basketball program have received promotions, coming off a season where the team finished third in the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference.
Fitzgerald averaged 10.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game over her two years with the Royals. Unlike many players, who have to work their way up to receive consistent playing time, Fitzgerald was a fixture of this team right from the beginning. She actually received slightly more minutes in her first year than her second.
She collected 132 three-pointers throughout her LRSC career. She had a field goal percentage of 35.4 and a free throw percentage of 79. She was fourth on the team in points this season, behind only Tiyahna Trottier, Crossan and Kleinig.
Ursuline, home of the Arrows, went 17-11 this season. The school is located in Pepper Pike, Ohio, which is a suburb of Cleveland. The team has been led by head coach Shannon Sword for more than a decade.
Clark built a solid pipeline over his two-year stay in Devils Lake. The program will look to keep churning out NCAA players under a different head coach next season, while Fitzgerald and the other commits will try to leave their marks on a bigger stage.
