New venues for Jillian and Mikaela

Jillian Harmon ('09) and Mikaela Ruef ('13) spent the 2014-15 season down under, playing in the Australian WNBL league, Jillian with the Townsville Fire (who won the league championship) and Mikaela with the Sydney Uni Flames (who placed fourth).

The WNBL season ended about a month ago, but Jillian and Mikaela are still playing basketball down under.

Jillian just signed with the Otago Goldrush, one of twelve teams in the New Zealand Women's Basketball Championship (WBC). The team is based in Dunedin, a city on the southeastern coast of the South Island (map).

The WBC has a different format than most professional leagues. Rather than a series of 20 or so weekly games, the WBC plays three monthly tournaments, the first in April beginning this Saturday, the second in May and the third in June.

Read more about Jillian and the WBC:

Otago women strike gold in signing Tall Fern Harmon
Harmon has been there, done that - but not this
Women's Basketball Champs underway this weekend

Mikaela is still in Australia, playing in the Southeastern Australia Basketball League (SEABL) for the Heritage Isle Tornadoes.

The Tornadoes are located in Tasmania, the small island just off the southern tip of the Australian mainland (map).

The SEABL season runs from mid-April, beginning this Saturday, to mid-August with playoffs until mid-September.

Here's an article about Mikaela's signing with the Tornadoes: US recruits add power to building tornadoes