Newman Sports
David Rung, Sports Information Director
WICHITA – A pair of Newman women’s basketball players have been keeping the competitive juices flowing in the offseason by suiting up for their respective national teams this summer.
Rising junior Iva Krstevska just wrapped up a stint with the Macedonia senior national team. The squad finished second in a prequalifying tournament for the 2019 European championships, beating Bosnia and Bulgaria before falling to Japan.
“It was an honor playing for the national team and being around professional players from the best leagues in Europe and some with WNBA experience,” Krstevska said. “I definitely learned a lot of things from them, things that will benefit me this upcoming season. I’m looking forward to using that experience at Newman.”
The Macedonian team will continue its qualification journey with group play in November, when Krstevska will be back in Wichita.
Fellow rising junior Melanie George is also back on her home continent, spending the summer playing for the Great Britain under-20 team.
George and her compatriots just finished warmup games in Hungary and Greece, and are now in Israel for the FIBA U20 Women’s European Championship. Competing in Group B in Division B, Great Britain will face Ireland, Romania, Belarus, Croatia and host Israel. Starting Saturday against Ireland, they’ll play five games in six days, hoping to move on to semifinals and final on July 15 and 16.
“Playing for Great Britain is a great experience, because I get to compete with some of the best U20 players in Europe,” George said. “Representing my country shows me I’m doing something right. Words can’t describe how I feel to play with Great Britain across my chest. It’s nice to see hard work paying off, but it obviously doesn’t stop there.”