WSU women’s basketball opens its season at Beasley Coliseum Monday against Eastern Washington and then travels to Southern California to take on the Stanford Cardinal Thursday.
At the home opener, the Cougs face an Eagles team also in a transition period. EWU is the reigning Big Sky regular season and tournament champions, earning an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament before losing to three-seed Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon. The Eagles had the best season in their program’s history, winning a conference and team record 29 games with multiple players earning top honors including Big Sky MVP, Defensive MVP and Coach of the Year in head coach Joddie Gleason.
The Eagles took a hard hit in the offseason, losing their top six scorers in an even split between graduates and transfers. The team is coming in with an overhauled unit that includes eight incoming players, five of which are freshmen.
The team fields a larger roster and is returning eight players. Husband and wife coaching duo Joddie and Skip Gleason are seeking to return with the same defensive identity they instilled last year, finishing 17th in the nation in opponent points per game. The roster is not short of experienced talent either, as the team returns five upperclassmen and a pair of graduate transfers.
EWU will have to overcome a preseason media ranking of seventh place in the Big Sky and will rely heavily on breakout performances from returners Alexis Pettis (4.2 points per game) and Bella Hays (3.1 PPG) among others. WSU is favored to win their first home game, but should not underestimate the coaching pedigree of Gleason.
The Cougs have not played the Eagles since their 2020 victory, but are just under 70 miles away from the EWU campus in Cheney, WA.
WSU gets an early season challenge when they face off against three-time NCAA champion Stanford, but the two are battling for the first time as non-conference opponents. Stanford is playing its first season in the ACC after leaving the Pac-12 during last year’s flurry of conference realignment, while WSU is playing its inaugural WCC season as an affiliate member.
Stanford finished 30-6 last season and finished fourth in the nation in the final NET rankings, but lost as a two-seed to NC State in the Sweet 16. The highlight of the Cardinal’s season was forward Cameron Brink, who was selected second in the WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks. Brink was the Pac-12 and National Defensive Player of the Year and the Pac-12 Player of the Year.
The Cardinal not only have the loss of Brink over their heads but also legendary head coach Tara VanDerveer, the winningest coach in NCAA history, men’s or women’s. She led Stanford to all three of its national titles and 14 final fours during her tenure.
Stanford now turns to an experienced in-house product in coach Kate Paye, who spent 17 years on VanDerveer’s staff and was a strong contributor as a player to the 1992 National Championship team. Paye has the experience to successfully succeed VanDerveer, but replacing Brink along with Pac-12 Most Improved Player Kiki Iriafen who transferred to rival USC is no easy task. Despite the significant changes occurring this year, Paye said the team is staying grounded in their values.
“I think having so much change has been helpful,” Paye said. “There’s not just one thing that’s different, there’s a lot of things that are kind of new and different. I think it creates a sense of energy for our staff, for our players and amongst all this change we are really leaning into continuity. The values of hard work, unselfishness, toughness, togetherness and our goals remain the same in winning a conference championship and a national championship.”
Stanford still fields a dangerous roster as they return starters Elena Bosgana and Talana Lepolo and should see increased roles for forwards Brooke Demetre and Nunu Agara. Bosgana, a senior guard, is the scoring leader among returners at 6.7 points per game and she started all 36 games for the Cardinal last year. Demetre, a senior forward, also appeared in every game, mostly coming off the bench and shooting 37.1% from deep. She is most likely to fill the void in the front-court that Brink left, which is a large hole to fill, but her floor-spacing ability will prove invaluable for the team’s offensive success.
The Cardinal are also adding young talent with high-level potential in recruits Kennedy Umeh (No. 44), Shay Ijiwoye (No. 53) and Harper Peterson (No. 87) who are all ranked in the ESPN HoopGurlz Top 100 rankings. The trio provides excellent depth and will look to develop behind an experienced starting five. The team also added Purdue transfer Mary Ashley-Stevenson who is the reigning Big Ten Freshmen of the Year and leads the forward bench depth behind Agara and Demetre.
The real firepower for Stanford comes in the form of transfer Tess Heal. Heal comes from Santa Clara after an efficient season in which she averaged 19.5 points, 4.9 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game, shooting 46% from the field. Only three players made more free throws than Heal last season, JuJu Watkins, Caitlin Clark, and Angel Reese.
Heal was also named WCC Newcomer of the Year and All-WCC first-team twice. The Australian native immediately steps into a starting role and could provide a much-needed offensive punch.
Stanford lacks the bonafide superstars of past years in players like Brink and Chiney Ogwumike and now sits in an increasingly tough ACC. The Cardinal are ranked outside of the top 25 for the first time since the 1999—2000 season. The team was picked to finish seventh in the ACC preseason poll with just one first-place vote and is looking to replace nearly 60 percent of its scoring from last year.
With 17 votes, Stanford still unofficially sits at 30th nationally in the initial AP poll, presenting a unique opportunity for WSU to earn what would likely be a quadrant one win on the road and get revenge on a former Pac-12 foe. The Cougs have never beaten the Cardinal going 0-48. There is a first time for everything and in a weaker WCC, WSU would take any opportunity to get quality wins.
WSU head coach Kamie Ethridge emphasized the importance of getting quality matchups in the non-conference schedule to help prepare her team for the tournament.
“That’s why this freshman class chose us, they wanted the competition, they want to go against the very best in the country,” Ethridge said. “We want our players playing that kind of competition because we want to be prepared when we get into the NCAA tournament.”
The Cougs host EWU at 4 p.m. Monday in Beasley Coliseum, then take on take on Stanford at 7 p.m. Thursday at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, California.
