If you've been following NAIA Division I you'll know that, under head coach Russ Davis, California's Vanguard University has been a top-ranked program for several years. In his twelve years, his teams have earned multiple Golden State Athletic Conference Championships, made nine national tournament appearances, and he has won several GSAC Coach of the Year awards.

As for his players? 36 have made the NAIA Scholar-Athlete list and 20 have been NAIA All-American players. Last year Jessica Richter was named NAIA Player of the Year.

But for all their success, the Lions couldn't quite reach that ultimate goal - a National Championship.

Cross that off the "to do" list.

With a 72-59 victory over Trevecca Nazarene, Vanguard earned the school's first NAIA National Championship, becoming the first-ever champion to hail from the state of California.

"The first thing I thought about when we won tonight was how many phone calls I got today from all of our past players, even the players we brought out for our program’s first national tournament (in 1998),” said coach Russ Davis, the 2008 NAIA Coach of the Year. “This win was special for all the players who had been here before and last year’s seniors, because they built this program up to the point where we could get to this point where we could win a national championship.”

Senior guard Melissa Cook finished with a game-high 25 points, drilling six-of-10 three-pointers and grabbing a team-high 12 rebounds for the double-double. Fellow senior, Bridgette Reyes added 14 points, while another senior, guard Jessica Richter, the tournament MVP, added 12 points, eight rebounds and a game-high five steals.

The championship game drew an attendance of 1,764, bringing the week-long tournament’s total attendance to 20,530.