Chattanooga Mocs women’s basketball student-athlete Frode Flos van der Schans will have the opportunity to represent UTC on the international stage later this month, as the redshirt-freshman was named to the Dutch National Team for the upcoming FIBA U20 Women’s European Championship.
A total of three guaranteed games awaits van der Schans and the rest of the Netherlands side in Romania, with the Dutch squad landing in Group C of Division B alongside Croatia, Slovenia and Kosovo. The Netherlands will be looking to claim a top-2 spot in Group C to advance out of the group stage and clinch their place in the Quarterfinals.
“We are extremely excited for Frode after she earned the opportunity to represent her country in the U20 European Championships,” UTC head coach Shawn Poppie said.
“Frode has had her eye set on this accomplishment going all the way back to when we recruited her. I told her we would give her all that we had in helping grow her game if she met us in the middle with her hard work. She took that to heart and worked very hard last season, although it was a redshirt year for her, and her skills and confidence grew. I am proud of Frode and will be cheering her on in the championships.”
A native of Amsterdam, van der Schans enters her second year with the Chattanooga women’s basketball program having been redshirted for the 2022-23 season. While in the Netherlands, she played for the Orange Lions Academy where she averaged 8.7 points per game while shooting 57.1 percent from the floor, along with tallying 9.7 rebounds per game.
“This is my first time playing for my country, and it’s just such a big honor,” van der Schans said. “I’m just so thankful for UTC and our coaching staff for helping me make my individual progress towards this moment.”
Van der Schans has also received numerous academic honors while studying at UTC, including being on the university’s Dean’s List and the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll. The redshirt-freshman was also recently named to the Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll, along with earning the conference’s Commissioner’s Medal while holding a perfect 4.0 GPA through the 2022-23 school year.
The Netherlands’ first game from Craiova is set to take place July 28 at 6 a.m. ET against Kosovo. The Dutch National Team will then take on Slovenia on July 30 before wrapping up group play against Croatia on August 2. Quarterfinals for the tournament are then set to begin August 4. All games will be available to watch from the FIBA YouTube channel, located here, and a schedule for the tournament can be found here.
The Dutch have their sights set on claiming their fourth medal in the 24-year history of the FIBA U20 Women’s European Championships. The most recent medal for the team came in 2018, when the Netherlands took home bronze against Italy while playing in Division A of the tournament. The team also has a Division A bronze medal from 2015, along with taking home gold in Division B in 2009.