Top Female Athlete: Ali Fourney ’09, Women’s Basketball

After being named NESCAC Rookie of the Year in 2005-06, Fourney continued her rise up the ladder with second-team all-NESCAC accolades her sophomore year and first-team all-NESCAC honors in 2007-08. Fourney looks to be the front-runner for NESCAC Player of the Year, which would be a fitting conclusion to the most illustrious career in the history of Wesleyan women’s basketball.

Fourney broke the all-time scoring record held by Angie Palmer ’95 in a Feb. 4 game at Emmanuel, finishing the season with 430 points—nearly 100 more than second-leading scorer Lucy Sprung G’08 (331)—to give her 1,498 for her career. Fourney tied a career high with 29 points to lead the team to a 66-55 home win over Colby in its regular-season finale and give the Cardinals the sixth seed in the NESCAC Championship. She also scored a game-high 19 against Williams in mid-January to power the Cards to an 86-45 demolition of its Little Three rival, tying the highest margin of victory ever in the 68-game series between the two foes and giving the Cardinals three straight double-digit wins over the Ephs for the first time ever.

Fourney, however, was much more than just a prolific scorer. She also tallied 355 free-throws, 528 rebounds, 230 assists, 100 blocks and 279 steals to complement her 512 career field goals (including 119 three-pointers), in the process becoming the first Wesleyan woman ever to reach triple digits in each of the seven major statistical categories.  In 2008-09, Fourney led the NESCAC in scoring (18.7 points per game) and also cracked the top ten in steals (second, 3.70 per game), blocks (ninth, 1.00 per game), and field-goal percentage (seventh, 47.4 percent). Fourney is clearly the best all-around player in the NESCAC this season and is arguably one of the top players the conference has ever seen.