The Ashland University Women’s Basketball team is gearing up for another season in the 2025-2026 campaign.

Coming off last season, the Eagles finished the season 32-4 overall and 19-1 in the Great Midwest in 2024-25, winning both the conference regular-season and tournament titles for a fourth straight year. Ashland also reached the NCAA Division II Sweet 16 for the eighth time in program history, but ultimately lost to Grand Valley in the regional championship game 62-50.

Entering this season, the Eagles come into the year as the preseason favorite to win the Great Midwest Athletic Conference title for a fifth consecutive year. Even with the losses of Hayley Smith, Zoe Miller and Sarah McKee, the Eagles still have some post threat down low.

The Eagles just recently played against the Iowa Hawkeyes in an exhibition game, falling 104 to 63, but head coach Kari Pickens was proud of her team.

“I loved how our team played, and Iowa is a good team, but I thought we did some good things against them,” said Pickens. “As far as our posts, Kyra Hill and Jenna Slates played some great defense against their bigs and did some things defensively against them that some people in our league cannot, and I’m excited to see how they do moving forward.”

Key players from last year that are back are sophomore guard Ashley Mullet, who averaged 6.9 points and 2.3 assists per game, and junior forward Lexi Howe, who averaged 7.6 points per game. Mullet and Howe are two of the three captains on this team.

Redshirt freshman Kyra Hill plays a big role for this team as the tallest Eagle (6’3), and juniors Gia Casalinova and Katelyn Harabedian will look to increase their roles within the Ashland rotation.

There are a lot of new faces on the team as well, who will get opportunities to shine. Senior guard Alysa Lopez joins the Eagles after stints with Sonoma State and Folsom Lake. Lopez brings experience as a versatile scorer and defender. Graduate student Jenna Badali transferred to Ashland after a long career with the Lewis Flyers. She will receive ball handling responsibilities in the Eagle offense.

“We changed our offense to fit their style more than what our previous offense was with the dominant seniors,” said Pickens. I think we can play fast and at a more up tempo, we will mostly always have four guards and one post on the floor and being able to hit perimeter shots and get to the free throw line a lot.”

The Eagles are ranked sixth in the coaches’ poll coming into the season, meaning for the 12th time since 2012, the Eagles are in the top 25 in the preseason coaches’ poll.

The 2025-26 regular season will begin on Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. vs. Indianapolis at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kate’s Gymnasium.