Pride women's basketball makes big leap in first in-season NAIA Coaches' Poll

Pride women's basketball makes big leap in first in-season NAIA Coaches' Poll
November 8, 2023

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Just a game deep into their 2023-24 season, the Clarke University women's basketball team moved up three spots to their highest ranking in program history at the new No. 4 team in the NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll, the NAIA announced on Wednesday morning.

The preseason No. 1 remains atop the poll in Campbellsville University as they received each of the 21 first place votes for the unanimous No. 1 team while the preseason No. 2 and fellow Heart of America Athletic Conference team Central Methodist dropped out of the top five for Dordt and Indiana Wesleyan to move up to No. 2 and No. 3 respectively as the only other teams ahead of Clarke in the rankings.

The full NAIA rankings release can be view here: https://www.naia.org/sports/wbkb/2023-24/Releases/1_national

Starting the season at No. 7, the Pride opened their season with a resounding 40-point victory over St. Ambrose University on Nov. 1 where they shot 52.9 percent from the field and 47.8 percent from three point range while holding the Fighting Bees to 29.0 percent from the field and 17.2 percent from three point range. 

Boasting a pair of 20-point scorers in their opening game, CU was led by Mya Merschman's 22-point performance where she only missed on shot in 22 minutes of action against SAU while newcomer to the Pride roster, Maci Kuchta scored 20 points while adding four rebounds and three assists running the point.

Fellow returners Nicole McDermott, Taylor Haase, Izzie Peterson, and Madison Lindauer all saw significant minutes, making multiple shots from the field for Clarke with McDermott, Haase and Peterson rounding out the starting five alongside Merschman and Kuchta. 

Transfers Taylor Norris and Jorja Hanselman both played about 20 minutes with Norris finishing with a 15-point performance off the bench and Hanselman finishing as the team's second leading rebounder at eight on the night, six defensive rebounds in her CU debut.

Clarke women's basketball will be back on the court for non-conference action tonight when they host Governors State Unviersity for a 5:30 p.m. CT tip in the Kehl before heading into Heart play when they host back-to-back home games against William Penn University on Saturday before welcoming No. 8 CMU next Wednesday.