Hunter O. Lyle – Sports Editor
Throughout her years at Southern, Kiana Steinauer, a senior and captain for the women’s basketball team, has certainly racked up many awards and accolades. Recently, the 5’10” forward from Ontario, Canada, was featured as an All-Region Honorable Mention on the DII Women’s Eastern Region All-Decade team.
The list, which was created by Stephen Zerdelian and posted on D2EastHoops.org, compared players from 2010 to 2019, and mentioned Steinauer, along with other NE10 talents such as Mikayla Roberts from Le Moyne and Shannon Ryan of Saint Anslem.
When looking over Steinauer’s resume, the numbers point to one thing: greatness.
During the beginning of this year’s season, Steinauer became the 22nd player to break 1,000 points in program history — currently she ranks 18th all time with a total of 1,065 points — and also sits just seven rebounds away from cracking 1,000 rebounds.
Although she has not been able to play for the majority of this season, last season Steinauer put on a show. While her team was bounced in the first round of the NE10 playoffs, and posted a meager 14-15 record, Steinauer averaged 18 points a game and a whopping 15 rebounds a game, something the Owls could use desperately in this season’s campaign.
Steinauer’s impressive 2018-2019 accolades was as follows: a DII Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) All-American Honorable Mention, D2CCA First Team All-East Region, NE10 First Team AllConference and DII AllECAC.
Without Steinauer’s presence on the court this year, the women’s basketball team has suffered tremendously. Steinauer only played in six games in total this season, and the Owls went 4-0 in regular season games with her help. Since her disappearance from the court, Southern has won only five games, losing the other 16 played, with a current record of 9-16.
There are only three games left in the regular season and the Owls need to win at least two of these deciding games to potentially qualify for the playoffs, and without Steinauer leading the team on the court, the Owls will have to dig deep to come out with some muchneeded wins.
