Hall of Fame
When Zane Teilane joined the Western Illinois women’s basketball team, she became the catalyst for the most successful run in program history. During her four-year career, WIU won four consecutive Mid-Continent Conference regular season titles.
Teilane helped lead Western to an 83-34 overall record and 51-11 Mid-Con record during her four-year career. A two-time Mid-Con ‘Player of the Year’ (2005, 2006) the 6-foot-6 center was also selected as the conference’s ‘Defensive Player of the Year’ during that span. While doing so, Teilane became the first player in conference history to win both awards in consecutive seasons.
She was a three-time First Team All-Mid-Con selection, and following her senior year earned Honorable Mention All-American honors by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association – the first and still only All-American honor by any WIU women’s basketball player. Teilane also joined elite company in Summit League history when she was chosen as a 30th Anniversary ‘Top 30 Distinguished Contributor’ back in 2012. The numbers she put up in her four-year career were staggering.
Teilane finished 10th in Mid-Con history scoring 1,547 points. Her 969 rebounds ranked her fifth in the conference and she stood second all-time with 406 blocked shots. All three of those statistics set Western Illinois career records – and all three still currently stand.
Teilane twice set a WIU single-game record blocking 10 shots, and owns seven of the top eight single-game highs. She dominated Oakland on the boards twice during her senior year, grabbing 20 rebounds in January 2006 (10th-highest single-game total) then following that with a career-high 22 boards in March (tying for third-most).
She holds four of the top five season blocked shots total – including a record 125 as a senior and 112 her sophomore year. She also ranks fourth (320/senior year), sixth (273/sophomore) and seventh (260/junior) on the season rebounding ‘Top 10’.
Twice she helped Western advance to postseason play, making a pair of appearances in the WNIT (2004 and 2006).
Following graduation, Teilane received the call to play professional basketball when she got drafted in the third round of the WNBA Draft by the Detroit Shock (35th overall pick). She played a season for the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and has been playing professionally overseas. During the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Teilane competed with her home country of Latvia, and she played on the National team in various European and World Tournaments for more than 10 years.
During her professional career, she played for teams in Spain, Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, and Latvia. She was named the 2012 Female Basketball Player of the Year in Latvia.
She graduated in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in Business and Fashion Merchandising.
