The Warriors host Ashland at 6 PM and Malone at 1 PM inside the Wayne State Fieldhouse.

Women's Basketball 11/6/2022 2:58:00 PM Zachary Manning, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Women's Basketball Set to Open Season Against Ashland and Malone

The Warriors made the NCAA Tournament last season.

STORYLINES
After making the fifth NCAA Tournament appearance in school history last season, the Wayne State University women's basketball team will open the 2022-23 season with a pair of home contests against Ashland and Malone. Carrie Lohr enters her 12th season with the Green and Gold and is aided by returning assistant coach Christina Green and newly hired assistant Andy Ayrault. WSU Hall of Fame inductee Shareta Brown will serve as the team's graduate assistant coach.

The Warriors and Eagles will square off in the Wayne State Fieldhouse at 6 PM on Friday night before WSU entertains Malone two days later at 1 PM. The Warriors went 18-10 a season ago.

SERIES HISTORY
Ashland has had Wayne State's number in recent history, and the Eagles lead the overall series 44-16. Wayne State did beat the Eagles 65-64 back on Feb. 16 of 2021, but that is the only Warriors' win in the last 14 meetings. Ten (10) of the 16 all-time wins for WSU have come in Detroit.

The Green and Gold have had better luck against Malone, leading the all-time series 6-2. The Warriors have not played the Pioneers since 2016, when MU won 72-69 ina GLIAC contest. Prior to that setback, WSU had won three straight in the series, and Wayne State is 3-1 at home versus Malone.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Ashland enters the contest as a preseason top-10 team after an impressive 29-3 campaign last season. The Eagles bring back a wealth of talent and brought in four transfers that should make an impact. Molly Dever (Bowling Green), Zoe Miller (Bowling Green), Maddie Maloney (Saginaw Valley State) and Savaya Brockington (Purdue Northwest) add a ton of big-game experience to a team that already had some star-power.

Ashland's unquestioned leader last season was Annie Roshak, who will return for another season with the Eagles. In 31 starts last season, Roshak averaged 17 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. Shooting wise, she was as efficient as they come, nailing 55 percent of her shots from the field and 33 percent of her shots from beyond the arc.

Macy Spielman and Hallie Heidemann also return for Ashland, and both of them averaged better than 12 points per game a season ago. They combined to average 24.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 4.6 assists. Spielman shot a blistering 57 percent from the field and 37 percent from three-point range, while Heidemann hit 49 percent of her looks from the field and 43 percent of her triple tries.

In terms of transfers, Brockington averaged 13.6 points and 6.1 rebounds for the Pride, while Maloney was strong for SVSU, scoring 11.3 points per contest. Zoe Miller was a solid contributor off the bench at Division I Bowling Green totaling 8.1 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. Dever played in 18 games for the Falcons, averaging 1.1 points and 0.6 rebounds.

In terms of Malone, the Pioneers return just two of their top six scorers from a season ago. Alexis Hutchison was third on the team in scoring last season, pouring in 12.5 points per game. She added 3.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists per contest.

Emma Kallas was the Pioneers' fourth-best scoring option last season, as she averaged 8.3 points and a team-leading 4.7 rebounds per contest. Kallas was efficient in scoring the ball when she got her opportunities, making 51 percent of her shots from the field.

Malone will look for those two to play big minutes on Sunday afternoon, with both players having averaged more than 25 minutes per game during the 2021-22 campaign.

SEASON OUTLOOK
Carrie Lohr enters her 12th year as the head coach of the Wayne State women's basketball program after guiding the Warriors to their fifth NCAA Tournament in program history during the 2021-22 season.

Karen Lafata retired after the season, leading Lohr to hire former men's basketball player Andy Ayrault to the coaching staff. Ayrault is joined by assistant coach Christina Green and graduate assistant coach Shareta Brown. All three assistant coaches played at Wayne State, with Brown being a Wayne State Hall of Fame inductee in 2022.

The Warriors had some significant roster turnover from last season, as 10 players departed the program due to graduation or transfer. Four of those 10 players started in the NCAA Tournament game against Grand Valley State to close last season. The Warriors graduated Alexis Miller, Sam Cherney, Grace George and Kate Sherwood from the starting lineup.

Other departures include Chenelle King, Anna Ruhstorfer, Tori Perez, Emma Anderson, Halle Barnett and Rebecca Morrish. Perez and Ruhstorfer were graduating seniors that played in a combined 186 games, making 38 starts.

Returning for the Green and Gold are Becca Fugate, Shea Tripp, Alyssa Leister, Ally Shagena, Kate McArthur and Maxine Moore. Fugate is the most experienced player coming back, as she is the lone starter returning from last year's NCAA Tournament team. She averaged 7.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game in 2021-22. Her impact is felt most in the shooting department, as she drained 37 triples last season. Fugate played in all of the team's 28 games, making 20 starts.

Shea Tripp's role will take a step up after she flashed her potential as a freshman. She missed four games due to injury, but played in 24 contests, making eight starts. Tripp averaged 6.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. But defensively she was a strong presence, as her 1.7 steals per game was the fourth best mark in the conference.

McArthur and Moore each saw action in 20 or more games, with Moore averaging 2.0 points and 1.3 rebounds per game and McArthur contributing 2.2 points and 0.7 assists per contest. Moore made 41 percent of her shots from the field and McArthur registered 14 triples in 2021-22.

Leister played in 24 games, while Shagena saw action in 13 contests. Leister averaged 2.0 points per game, while hitting 36 percent of her shots from the field. Shagena was 5-of-17 from the field, including a make from beyond the arc.

The Warriors welcome six new faces to the program, with four freshmen and two transfers entering the picture. Taylor Thompson, Ashley Bower, Mashayla Cecil, Thaya Luse, Hillary Griffin and Sophia Karasinski will look to make a name for themselves with the program.

Bower has stood out in practice and could come in and start as a freshman. The Portland, Mich., native was a four-year varsity starter at Portland High School, averaging 19 points per game as a senior to earn Division 2 First Team All-State accolades from the Associated Press, Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.

Cecil comes to WSU after spending the last three seasons at Glenville State. She played in 36 games last season, helping the Pioneers to a 35-1 overall record en route to a Division II National Championship. Cecil started 10 games and averaged 7.6 points per contest last season.

With some fresh faces in the program, Wayne State will look to get back to the top of the GLIAC once again. The Warriors' last league championship came back in 2013-14 when they topped the league with a 17-5 GLIAC record. The following year, WSU won the GLIAC South Division with an 18-4 mark in conference play.

WSU opens the season with a pair of home games against Ashland and Malone before hitting the road for a contest against Central State on Nov. 19. Wayne State then returns home to host the Warrior Holiday Tournament, which will feature games against Carson-Newman (Nov. 22) and Walsh (Nov. 23).

The Warriors will also play non-conference games against Findlay (Dec. 19) and Michigan-Dearborn (Dec. 30).

Conference play begins with a trip to Saginaw Valley State on Dec. 3. The Green and Gold then return home to host Purdue Northwest (Dec. 9) and Parkside (Dec. 11). The rest of the home schedule includes Northern Michigan (Jan. 5), Michigan Tech (Jan. 7), Lake Superior State (Jan. 19), Ferris State (Jan. 21), Saginaw Valley State (Jan. 28), Davenport (Feb. 16) and Grand Valley State (Feb. 18). The GLIAC Tournament will run from March 1-5.

WARRIOR ALL-ACCESS
Every regular season home game will be streamed via Warrior All-Access at WSUAthletics.com.

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