Marquette is right fit for Geneva’s Santos

Updated: June 15, 2011 11:20AM

One day, it was over.

It was like any other evening during the recruiting process for Ashley Santos, one of the country’s top 100 players in her class, mulling over a bevy of official offers to play college basketball, talking about each school with her parents.

The most sought after Aurora-area recruit from the class of 2012, Santos had every intention of entertaining any and all as she began her senior year at Geneva in the fall. But, there was something about Marquette University in downtown Milwaukee that made Santos decide to end the process at the end of May.

“The past couple months I’ve had to keep talking to my parents, going over my different options, weighing the pros and cons and things like that,” Santos said. “It was just another one of those days when the conversation came up again and I just kind of convinced myself then that I knew where I wanted to go, and it was Marquette.”

Marquette, a Big East program which finished the 2010-11 season 24-9 and lost 79-70 to Tennessee in the second round of the NCAA tournament, won out over other finalists Indiana, Vanderbilt, Purdue, Pittsburgh and Penn State.

“I knew they were very easy going and I liked communicating with them,” Santos said. “I loved the staff and I know it’s such a great school. Academically, there are so many opportunities for me there. Even though I don’t know what I want to do, there are so many things to look into.”

Along with her younger sister Sidney, Santos is a member of Puerto Rico’s junior national team and comes from a long line of basketball talent. Mom Lori played at Wichita State while dad Jose played professionally in Puerto Rico and was also a member of the men’s national team.

A 6-foot guard, Santos averaged nearly 16 points per game for the Vikings last season and is expected to lead the team following the departure of eight seniors, including Beacon-News Player of the Year Kat Yelle.

Santos surpassed the 1,000-point plateau in January.

“Making this commitment is definitely a sigh of relief for me, but at the same time it’s going to make me push harder off the court to really work and develop my skills even more,” Santos said. “Building off it is what I think about. Then going into this next season, I’ve talked to my teammates and we all have high expectations and goals already in our mind. So not letting them down will also keep me wanting to push myself to work harder. I’ll still play as hard as I can every game. That mentality won’t leave now that I’ve committed.”

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