It is finally here. WSU women’s basketball opens its 2023–24 regular season at 4 p.m. Monday at Beasley Coliseum. The Cougs will host Cal Poly, a 10-18 team last season.
Pullman will host the beginning of year two of Shanele Stires-era for Cal Polly women’s basketball. Stires joined the Cal Poly staff in April 2022 after coaching six seasons at Cal State East Bay where she won two CCAA Championships.
The Mustangs won their exhibition game 70-18 over Simpson University, Thursday. Two Mustangs scored as many or more points individually than Simpson’s whole lineup.
Junior guard Annika Shah led her team with 18 points. She averaged 9.8 points per game last season and is coincidentally the Mustangs’ biggest scoring threat.
Junior Sidney Richards, a transfer from San Jose State scored 18 points with four assists and four steals.
The Mustangs generated 31 turnovers against their NAIA opponents.
WSU returns All-Pac-12 players Charlisse Leger-Walker (whose 17.7 points per game were the second-best in the Pac-12 last year) and Bella Murekatete along with rising star Astera Tuhina and junior Tara Wallack. They added graduate transfer Beyonce Bea from University of Idaho where she led her team in scoring and became the second-highest scorer in program history.
The Cougs are battling some injuries early in the season. Fifth-year Johanna Teder hung up her cleats for the season because of an injury she had played through for the past two seasons while Jessica Clarke and Krya Gardner seek to return to the court soon.
UPDATE: Krya Gardner is warming up on the floor
Wazzu will roll out an underclassmen bench which includes Arlington, Washington’s Jenna Villa, Lissone, Italy’s Eleonora Villa and Missoula, Montana’s Alex Covill.
Head coach Kamie Ethridge enters her sixth season at the helm as a reigning Pac-12 Champion. The Cougs are deeper than they ever have been in her time at WSU and have earned the right to have robust home court support, she said.
“The seniors are ready to be done with last year. We don’t need to talk anymore about last year we just need to attack this year and see how good this team can be and again I think everyone is really excited about the team we’re going to be able to put on the floor this year.”
At ZZU Mania on Friday, Ethridge challenged the students to show up and support the Cougs night in and night out.
Leger-Walker agrees wholeheartedly with her coach. She said people have told her how much they appreciate how much fun the team has playing basketball together.
“I 100% think that if you come to one of our games, you understand why people love basketball so much,” Leger-Walker said.
