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On May 8, 2007, the University of Missouri-St. Louis announced the hiring of Lisa Curliss-Taylor as the women’s basketball head coach. She becomes the 10th women’s basketball head coach in school history. Curliss-Taylor comes to UMSL from East Texas Baptist University, an NCAA Division III school, where she served as the head coach for the past four years. She has compiled a 57-48 record during her career at ETBU, including a 40-14 record over the past two seasons. “I am very excited to have this opportunity to be the head coach at the University of Missouri-St. Louis,” said Curliss-Taylor. “One of the main reasons I took this job was the close relationship of the entire athletic staff at UMSL, and the leadership of the administration to guide the department in the right direction.” At ETBU, Curliss-Taylor led the team to a 22-5 record last season while being crowned the American Southwest Conference East Division Champions. She had four players earn all-conference honors last season and she was named ASC East Division Coach of the Year. The previous season, she led the team to a record of 18-9 overall for a 40-14 record over the past two seasons. She has coached the ASC East Division Freshman of the Year each of the past three seasons and has coached seven All-ASC East players. Her 57 career wins at East Texas Baptist rank her fourth on the school’s all-time win list. Prior to her head coaching job at ETBU, Curliss-Taylor was an assistant coach at Division II Washburn University for two seasons. The team went 53-11 in those two seasons, including a 30-4 record in 2002-03 while winning a conference and regional championship, and earning a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight. In the 2000-01 season, she was an assistant coach at Norman (Okla.) High School where she also served as the head coach for the girls sophomore team, earning Class 6A Sophomore Coach of the Year honors. She spent two seasons as a student-assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma for head coach Sherri Coale, where the team went 25-8 in the 1999-2000 season and advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. Curliss-Taylor, originally from Oklahoma City, Okla., played collegiately at the Division I level at Oral Roberts University, before transferring and coaching at Oklahoma. She graduated from Oklahoma University with a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree in Broadcast Journalism and Electronic Media and a minor in history. Curliss-Taylor and her husband, Preston, were married in July 2005, and the couple has a one-year old daughter, Lauren.
Lora Westling is in her first season at UMSL after serving the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Washburn University. Westling has coached at Washburn University for the past two years after a stellar four-year career with the Lady Blues. The past two years, she has helped coach the team to a combined record of 61-5, including a 32-1 season in 2005-06, and went 29-4 last season. Wasburn won the MIAA tournament championship and advanced to the NCAA Regional championship game both years with Westling as an assistant coach. In addition to her basketball coaching, Westling served as the assistant coach for the women’s soccer team that went 29-4 on the season. “Lora was a tremendously hard worker as a player and she’ll be just as devoted and hard working as a coach,” said head coach Lisa Curliss-Taylor. “Lora has a great personality and will be able to relate well with our team as a former player and from a coaches standpoint.” Westling spent four years as a member of the Washburn women’s basketball team, scoring 965 career points and ranks 20th on the school’s all-time scoring list. She broke the school career record for games played and three-point field goals made at the time her career ended, and her record for most career games is an MIAA conference record. Westling earned All-MIAA honors twice during her career and was named to the all-tournament team at the Elite Eight in 2004-05 after averaging 14.3 points per game while helping the Lady Blues win the national championship. She played one season of soccer at Washburn, earning all-conference and all-region honors. Westling was named the Washburn Lady Blues senior athlete of the year following the 2005-06 academic year and was a four-time MIAA Academic All-Conference selection. During her career, she also served as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and worked with other charitable organizations such as the Junior Achievement program and as a Youth Sports Coach in Topeka, Kan., for both soccer and basketball. Westling, a native of Casper, Wyoming, graduated from Washburn University in 2005 with a degree in marketing and completed her MBA at Washburn in May 2007. |
