Escaping the first round and reaching the Elite Eight was an overall improvement from last year for the California University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team.

Individually, no Vulcans player may have shown as much improvement as Brooque Williams did.

After seeing limited playing time early in her freshman year, Williams, a graduate of Perry Traditional Academy in Pittsburgh, burst onto the scene this season helping to guide Cal to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight for the third time in the past eight seasons under coach Darcie Vincent.

The women's Division II Elite Eight will decide the championship at Health and Sports Center on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Kearney. California will face Delta State, the winner of the South Region on Wednesday. Vincent led the Vulcans to an NCAA Final Four in her third season in 2003 and to the championship the next season. This is her third Elite Eight in her eight seasons at the school.

Vincent recruited Williams based on her potential. Williams has realized that potential in a big way this year.

"Brooque has always been a tremendous athlete, but as far as her skills, they were questionable," Vincent said.

"She struggled dribbling with her left hand and her [shooting] range had to increase. Since last season, she has developed tremendously. I have never seen that kind of improvement in my 13 years in basketball, seeing a player go from marginal to a great skill player. Her ballhandling just went to another level."

Williams attributes the improvement to the hard work she put in during the summer. She did a lot of training with her father and another college coach as well as playing against Division 1 players in a summer league.

"I knew I definitely had to work on my ballhandling," Williams said. "I just really worked on it every day. I knew I could be a lot better than I was the previous year and I could bring more to the team than I did my freshman year."

Advancing far into the postseason is a new experience for Williams. While at Perry, the Commodores were never able to advance to a championship game.

She was named to the PSAC-West first team along with teammate Kayla Smith, the PSAC-West Rookie of the Year. Smith scored 445 points behind only Williams who was first on the team with 540 points to go with her 118 steals, 97 assists and 232 rebounds heading into the NCAA tournament.

Both players along with junior Lindsay Johnson and freshman Amber Dubyak reached double figures in the No. 2 seed Vulcans 70-54 NCAA East Regional first-round win over Millersville.

In the second round of the NCAA tournament, Smith led all scorers with 23 points and blocked a career high six shots in a 68-55 win over Anderson (S.C.). Both Johnson and Williams added double-doubles in the win with Johnson scoring 14 points and grabbing 13 rebounds and Williams going for 12 points and rebounds each.

To send the Vulcans to the Elite Eight, Williams played one of her best games of the year scoring 23 points and hauling in 13 rebounds to lift California over Shepherd, 86-71, in the regional final.

"We wouldn't be where we are without any of the kids, but Brooque, you just can't replace her," Vincent said.

"She offers so many different dimensions in how she plays. She gets to the basket, she has great range and she is one of our top defenders. She understands every facet of the game and her development has been amazing."

The NCAA tournament run for the Vulcans began after a tough loss in the PSAC championship game to top-seeded IUP. Williams led the No. 2 seed Vulcans with a game-high 19 points but they were unable to hold onto a nine-point lead with seven minutes to play. California had just six days to regroup and prepare for the NCAA tournament.

If California defeats Delta State, it will advance to the semifinals Thursday against the winner of South Dakota and Washburn in Kearney, Neb. The championship game is Saturday.