Shypulski, the Lady Trojans' senior forward from Blaine, Minn., has been selected as a first-team all-conference player by the DAC-10 conference and tabbed as its most valuable senior player.

     On the national level, she was named an NAIA Academic All-American (achieving at least a 3.5 grade point average) and named to the NAIA's second team honors unit, topping last year's honor, which was honorable-mention status.

     Shypulski was one of the "rocks" on which Jeff Dittman, the Lady T's head coach, has built his successful women's hoops program, which now has appeared in two straight NAIA Div. II Women's Basketball Tournaments.

     "With Kathy on the floor, we always knew she could get hot," said Dittman. "And, when she got hot, she was incredible. Kathy scored more than 30 points twice this season. She was one of the best shooters in the country."

     Against S.D. Tech this past season, she nailed down a 33-point scoring effort and followed that a short time later with a 32-point display against the University of Mary.  Those two performances helped her reach the 536-point scoring plateau for the season and score 1,432 tallies in her four-year career at DSU. Respectively, those put her third and second in DSU's record book.

     Shypulski is also the university's all-time best in counting up three-point field goals, 248, and in single-season figures at 95.

     "With her scoring and assists, Kathy was involved in almost one-third of all the points we scored this year," added Dittman. "Kathy was a deadly long-range shooter. She finished her career as the third all-time scorer and top three-point shooter in DSU history."

     In DSU's records, Shypulski also wound up in the Top 10 in career assists, third, 323; and single season assists, eighth, 118.  

     And, in the DAC-10 this past season, Shypulski was third in scoring, 17.1 ppg, three-point field goal percentage, fifth, 42.3 percent, free throw percentage, 84.4 percent; and assists, eighth, 3.8 per game.

     It was her approach to the game, which made her career so outstanding, according to Dittman.  "Kathy spent a tremendous amount of time in the gym the past four years developing her shooting skills," said Dittman. "She also had to make a number of adjustments because of position changes.

     "Her freshman and sophomore years, she played the shooting guard position. Last year, due to a rash of injuries to our post players, she began the season at the power forward position. Later, we moved her to the small forward position. This year, we asked her to play the point guard position for us."

     The shifts and changes which Shypulski has had to make have made her the complete team player, according to Dittman.

     "This took tremendous work on Kathy's part to make these adjustments," concluded Dittman. "It also requires someone who is willing to do what is best for the team. Kathy never worried about change; she just wanted to help us win."

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