D3hoops.com: Notables

Washington College athletic director Bryan Matthews has announced the hiring of Megan Duran as the school's new head women's basketball coach. Duran's previous coaching experience includes stints at Pfeiffer, Newbury, and Hartwick.

Duran comes to Washington College from Pfeiffer, a Division II school in North Carolina, where she served as the assistant coach for the Falcons during the 2007-08 season, aiding in recruiting, scouting, conducting practices and other duties. Prior to her stay at Pfeiffer, Duran spent one year as the head women's basketball coach, sports information director, assistant athletic director, and senior woman administrator at Division III Newbury. Duran's first collegiate coaching experience came at Hartwick, where she served as an assistant coach for two seasons.

Duran played collegiate basketball at Division II Francis Marion. As a two-year starter and two-year captain, Duran helped lead the Patriots to four NCAA Division II Tournament appearances. In three of those four appearances, Francis Marion advanced to at least the Sweet Sixteen and reached the national semifinals during the 1997-98 season.

Proficient in several computer programming languages, Duran earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Francis Marion in May 2001.

Duran will be the fourth head coach in the program's 15-year varsity history, but the third coach in less than a year. Former assistant coach Steve Kaneshiki took over the reins of the program on an interim basis in October following the departure of former head coach Gail Gilchrest-Wallach for the head women's basketball coaching position at Drew. Kaneshiki is currently pursuing other coaching opportunities.

Despite those recent changes, Matthews is confident Duran can keep the Shorewomen, who are coming off their best two seasons of the past half-decade, headed in the right direction. "We are excited to have Megan join our coaching staff. Her experience and enthusiasm will help make the transition smooth, and we look forward to her commitment to our student-athletes and the program."

Washington went 9-16 overall and 6-12 in Centennial Conference play during the 2007-08 season. The team is graduating two seniors -- Elise Conway, the first first-team all-conference player in the program's history and Brenda Lucas, the first Shorewoman ever to play in 100 career games -- but returns three starters, including Jane O'Donnell, who finished second in Division III in three-pointers made per game and averaged a team-leading 15.0 points per game in 2007-08.

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