Jackie Anthony knew she would be on a trip this week, but she expected to pack sunscreen instead of a stocking cap and mittens.

Anthony is an outfielder on the Geneva College softball team, which is in Florida on its annual spring trip. She is also the starting point guard on the Golden Tornadoes basketball team, which is in Sioux City, Iowa, for the NAIA Division II national tournament.

The temperature in Fort Myers, Fla., where the softball team is playing games, was expected to be 81 today. The forecast called for a high in Sioux City of 30.

"I knew I was going someplace," Anthony said last week before the basketball team headed west. "I didn't know there would be a 50-degree difference in temperature."

Anthony and the rest of the Geneva women's basketball team hope to have a hot time at the NAIA tournament. The Golden Tornadoes (24-4) take on Kansas' Mid-American Nazarene (30-3) at 11:15 a.m. today at the Tyson Events Center. The winner plays the winner of the game between Ottawa, Kan. and Saint Ambrose, Iowa at 11:15 a.m. tomorrow.

This is the first trip to the NAIA tournament for Geneva's women's team. While Anthony, a 5-foot-1 senior and Rochester High School graduate, enjoys the sun as much as anyone, she would rather be in the Midwest.

"It's exciting," she said. "There are four of us on the basketball team who also play softball. I guess there's a possibility we could go from the [basketball] tournament to Florida if we'd gets knocked out early. That's been talked about, but we don't want that to happen."

The other basketball/softball players are sophomore Renee Rawding, senior Bridget Beachy and sophomore Michawn Rich. Rawding, a Blackhawk High School graduate, is also a basketball starter and averages 11.9 points, while Rich and Beachy are top reserves.

Anthony and athletic success seem to go hand-in-hand, so it comes as no surprise Geneva's basketball team set a school record for victories this season with Anthony running the show most of the time.

At Rochester, Anthony led the Rams to a section title in basketball and a spot in the WPIAL playoffs. She was on a WPIAL Class AA championship doubles team in tennis and ran a leg on a 400-meter relay team that placed sixth at the PIAA track championships.

"She's a winner," Geneva coach Ron Galbreath said. "She looks tiny out there on the court and she gets bounced around, but she's tough. I don't know how many times people have told me after games, 'Wow, that little guard you have can really play.'"

Anthony is Geneva's third-leading scorer at 10.4 points per game. She leads the team in assists with 132 (4.7 per game), steals (53) and minutes played (783). She teams with Beaver Falls High School graduate Kylee Kittner, a 5-5 senior, to give Geneva a solid back court.

"I call them the dynamic duo because of the way they play," Galbreath said. "We do a lot of things because those two are so versatile. Jackie can play either guard and so can Kylee."

Galbreath targeted Anthony as a top recruit when she was a senior at Rochester. But instead of signing with Geneva, Anthony began her college career at Pitt-Johnstown, a NCAA Division II program.

"I had shed a tear when I drove home from her house that night after she told me she was going to Johnstown," Galbreath said. "I just thought that much of her as a player and a person."

Things didn't work out for Anthony, a communications major, in Johnstown. She didn't see much game action and grew tired of sitting and watching. She transferred to Geneva midway through her sophomore year.

"I knew some of the players here from going against them in high school," Anthony said. "I played with Kylee on a team one summer and against Allyson [Clarke]. I just wanted an opportunity to play."

She stepped into a starting role last season and averaged 8.4 points a game.

Her outstanding quickness and uncanny ability to get to the basket or find an open teammate fit in perfectly.

"She completed our puzzle," Galbreath said. "She's maybe the best athlete on the team and her attitude is contagious. She's smart and she just plays so hard all the time."

Anthony is the same way on the softball field. Last year, she hit .303, scored a team-high 37 runs and was 27 for 32 on stolen base attempts.

She enjoys playing softball and is looking forward to this season. But Anthony would just as soon put off pulling on the spikes and oiling up the glove until after Tuesday.

That's the day of the championship game at the NAIA tournament.