Two York County women's basketball players to participate in historic NCAA Final Four

Two former YAIAA basketball stars will participate in a historic NCAA women's Final Four this weekend.

For the second time in NCAA history, the women's basketball championship games for all three levels will be hosted at one location — American Airlines Center in Dallas. South Western graduate Taylor Geiman will be playing for Virginia Tech in the Division I Final Four while York Catholic graduate Katy Rader is a member of Christopher Newport, which will be playing in the Division III title game.

Geiman and Rader are both seniors who graduated high school in 2019. Interestingly enough, Geiman's older brother, Brock, played men's college basketball for Christopher Newport and graduated in 2020.

The last time all three women's championship games were held in one location was Indianapolis in 2016. The NCAA is holding all three championships games as a joint event this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the 1972 civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs and athletics. 

A No. 1 seed in the Division I tournament, Virginia Tech (31-4) will play third-seeded LSU (32-2) in the semifinals 7 p.m. Friday night. It's the Hokies first appearance in a women's Final Four. The winner will play the winner of Iowa and South Carolina in the title game 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

In the Division III championship game, No. 1 Christopher Newport (31-0) will play No. 2 Transylvania (32-0) in a battle of undefeated teams at 12 p.m. Saturday.

The 2019 YAIAA Girls' Basketball Player of the Year, Geiman accepted a scholarship to Virginia Tech after receiving more than 20 Division I offers during her standout high school career at South Western. Geiman scored more than 1,100 points but was known as an unselfish player who stuffed the stat sheet (she averaged 13 points, 10 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 4.1 blocks and 2.4 steals per game as a senior).

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Her college career was marred early on by multiple knee injuries that cut her first two seasons short. But she's come off the bench for the Hokies the past two seasons and has averaged seven minutes of playing time this season.

While she's taken a backseat on a team led by stars Georgia Amoore and Elizabeth Kitley, Geiman has gotten playing time during Virginia Tech's NCAA Tournament run. She made one 3-pointer and dished out three assists in a second-round win over South Dakota State. And she got one minutes of playing time in the first half of Monday's 84-74 win over Ohio State in the Elite Eight.

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She joins a small list of York County women's basketball players to reach the NCAA Division I Final Four. York High's Chantel Tremitiere played in three title games for Auburn from 1988 to 1990. Red Lion's Debbie Baer Fiske reached the Final Four with UConn in 1991.

A four-year starter York Catholic, Rader has gotten playing time throughout her career at Christopher Newport, which has been a Division III powerhouse in recent years.

She started for the Captains this season and averaged 7.2 points in 20 minutes per game. However, she was injured during this year's Sweet 16 and won't be able to play in Saturday's title game. She will be be eligible to return to the team next season due to the extra year of eligibility extended to players because of COVID.

Matt Allibone is a sports reporter for GameTimePA. He can be reached at 717-881-8221, mallibone@ydr.com or on Twitter at @bad2theallibone.