Womhoops Guru

Mel Greenberg covered college and professional women’s basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for 40 plus years. Greenberg pioneered national coverage of the game, including the original Top 25 women's college poll. His knowledge has earned him nicknames such as "The Guru" and "The Godfather," as well as induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Philly Women's Summer League: Fioravanti Heads First Womhoops Guru All-Summer League Squad

By Bob Heller and Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

HATBORO, Pa. – Everyone else does it so why not do something similar at the Philadelphia/Suburban Women’s NCAA-Certified Summer Basketball League here at Kelly Bolish Gym, home of the AAU Renegades.

Consider this not official since longtime commissioner David Kessler doesn’t even know it’s coming but with the playoffs about to begin Thursday night with quarterfinal action, Bob and your Guru decided that since we were around most of the summer, why not name a regular season first-ever All-Philly Summer League Team and an MVP and then come back and do likewise for the playoffs, where a few more will be invited into the voting mix and perhaps something more formal could be established next year.

Furthermore Bob did a yeoman’s job doing detailed accounts of all the games, something the Guru couldn’t do in the past so he certainly was inside all the games while your Guru got the sense of who’s who through posting the ongoing coverage.

We figured a flat out 15 players, no first, second, or third five, was appropriate to give equal billing to all and to account for all players from the 12 teams for consideration  and get some into the citations, if warranted, into who won’t be in the playoff field.

No prizes or paper awards are involved, the commissioner gives his own swag/toys during and after the playoffs.

Since there wasn’t room on the main preview post above this, the Guru’s own 20-point chart will be at the bottom here.

But from the outset and it wasn’t easy but the regular season MVP honor goes to Saint Joseph’s senior Amanda Fioravanti, who helped rescue Team White from its 1-3 start to finish with a seven-game win streak and third seed without the need of a tiebreak to open in the quarterfinals.

Fioravanti, whose collegiate career started at Virginia before transferring to the Hawks, got good news at the outset of the summer learning the NCAA had granted a petition for an extra year of eligibility to get her four years.

On the Guru’s nightly 20-plus scoring list, Fioravanti and Hawks senior teammate Chelsea Woods of Electric Green hit the mark a league-leading seven times of the 11 games played and Fioravanti on the fourth night in late June also had the top performance of the year with 41 points.

But that alone wasn’t the deal-breaker, just using an overall sense of who should get what, but it was close.

So congratulations.

 And here’s our picks. Undoubtedly many of ours would have also been those of others invited to vote if we didn’t make this a rush job off a sudden inspiration. 

But feel free to badger us the next several nights if you think someone not named had a compelling case.


Womhoops Guru All-Philly WBB Summer League Team
(Regular Season)
(Listing in no particular order with summer team also named)

*-Amanda Fiorvanti             White
Jess Huber                          Maroon
Colleen Walsh                   Maroon
Chelsea Woods                 Electric Green
Mia Hopkins                       Forest Green
Jenny Horvatinovic           Forest Green
Erin Lindahl                        Sky Blue
Caitlyn Cunningham         Black
Michaela Clay                    Royal Blue
Sierra Taylor                      Royal Blue
Alex Thomas                      Maroon
Nia Holland                        White
Alynna Williams                Black
Liz Radley                           Orange
Shayna Rodriguez             Pink

*-MVP

Individual Scoring 20 Or More Points

41-Amanda Fioravanti, White, L, vs. Sky Blue, June 27
33-Kristen Daley, Sun, L, vs. Orange, July 20
33-Jess Huber, Maroon, W-2OT, vs. Forest Green, June 29
31-Chelsea Woods, Electric Green, W, vs. Sky Blue, July 13
30-Hannah Fox, Electric Green, W, vs. Pink, July 20
30-Chelsea Woods, Electric Green, W, vs. Red, June 27
29- Liz Radley, Orange, W, vs. Sun, July 20
28-Chelsea Woods, Electric Green, W, vs. Forest Green, July 11
27-Chelsea Woods, Electric Green, L, vs. White, July 18
27-Amanda Fioravanti, White, L, vs. Royal Blue, June 22
27-Kendall Grasella, Sky Blue, L, vs. Forest Green, June 15
26-Mia Hopkins, Forest Green, W, vs. Black, July 20
26-Katie Jekot, Sky Blue, L, vs. Black, July 18
26-Amanda Fioravanti, White, W, vs. Black, June 29
26-Chelsea Woods, Electric Green, W, vs. Black, June 22
25-Erin Lindahl, Sky Blue, W, vs. Pink, July 25 
25-Caitlyn Cunningham, Black, W, vs. Sky Blue, July 18
25-Chelsea Woods, Electric Green, L, vs. Royal Blue, June 15
24-Mia Hopkins, Forest Green, W, vs. Royal Blue, July 25
24-Shayna Rodriguez, Pink, L, vs. Sky Blue, July 25
24-Beverly Kum, Black, W, vs. Orange, July 13
23-Lydia Konstanzer, Sun, W, vs. Purple, June 27
23-Chelsea Woods, Electric Green, L, vs. Sun, June 20
23-Kendall Grasella, Sky Blue, L, vs. Royal Blue, June 20
22-Kristen Daley, Sun, W, vs. Red, July 18
22-Amanda Fioravanti, White, W, vs. Sun, July 13
22-Irisa Ye, Maroon, W, vs. Pink, July 13
22-Sierra Taylor, Royal Blue, L, vs. Black, July 6
21-Anjeliah Hayes, Orange, L, vs. Electric Green, July 25
21-Kristen Daley, Sun, L, vs. Maroon, July 25
21-Ashley Smink, Purple, L, vs. White, July 6
21-Caitlyn Cunningham, Black, W, vs. Pink, June 20
21-Jada Smith, Orange, W, vs. Purple, June 20
21-Amanda Fioravanti, White, W, vs. Maroon, June 15
20-Amanda Fioravanti, White, W, vs. Purple, July 25
20-Mia Hopkins, Forest Green, W, vs. Pink, July 18
20-Meghan Pickell, Orange, L, vs. Maroon, July 18
20-Kendall Grasella, Sky Blue L, vs. Maroon, July 11
20-Vicky Tumasz, Red, W, vs. Sky Blue, June 29
20-Katie O’Hare, Orange, W, vs. Royal Blue, June 29
20-Mia Hopkins, Forest Green, W, vs. Orange, June 27
20-Alynna Williams, Black, L, vs. Royal Blue, June 22
20-Mia Hopkins, Forest Green, W, vs. White, June 20
20-Beverly Kum, Black, W, vs. Pink, June 20
20-Amanda Fioravanti, White, L, vs. Forest Green, June 20