Kennedy and Kuchta earn All-Heart honors for 2024-25 season

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Coming off of their eighth place finish in the 2024-25 Heart of America season, the Clarke University women's basketball team had two members of their team earn All-Conference honors for their regular season performance.

Making her Pride debut in 2024-25, sophomore guard/forward Zoe Kennedy was named to the All-Heart First Team as fellow transfer in her second year at Clarke, Maci Kuchta joined Kennedy with an All-Heart Third Team selection to be an All-Heart selection in both of her seasons at CU.

Kennedy, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa native, joined the Pride from Western Colorado this season and made a splash, especially on the offensive end finishing the regular season averaging 18.8 points per game and 4.5 assists per game to lead the conference in both categories.

After playing in the Heart Tournament Quarterfinals, Kennedy's scoring average finished the 2024-25 season at 18.4 points per game for the highest scoring average by a member of the Pride in the last 20 years since Makenna Haase's 16.9 points per game in 2018-19 and ranks fifth all-time at CU sandwiched in between two seasons by Clarke Hall of Famer Alisha Frese who had a 19.0 average in 1999-20 and an 18.2 average in 2001-02.

Kennedy put up double figures in all but four games on the season as her marquee game of the season came when she produced the program's first triple-double since the 2017-18 season when she scored 27 points, tied a school record with 16 assists, and added 10 rebounds in a Pride victory over Peru State College on Jan. 4 as that performance helped Kennedy earn the Heart and NAIA Offensive Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career.

Both Kennedy and Kuchta averaged over 38 minutes per game as both become the top-two players in program history for minutes per game in a season as Kuchta's 38.3 becomes the new school record with Kennedy right behind at 38.0 minutes per game.

A lot of Kuchta's averages went up between year one and year two for the point guard from Columbia, Mo. as she finished 2024-25 averaging 10.1 points per game, 4.4 assists per game, 5.2 rebounds per game, and 1.8 steals per game.

Kuchta had three games of 20 or more points, produced two or more assists in all but one game, and three or more rebounds all but three times on the season including a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double on Feb. 3 at home against William Penn University in a 78-58 Pride win.

Full Heart All-Conference Release: https://heartofamericaconference.com/sports/wbkb/2024-25/releases/20250228ns3wb4

Clarke women's basketball finished the 2024-25 season with an 11-18 overall record and 9-15 record in the Heart regular season as Kennedy will highlight a returning group of players that include four of the starting lineup and two other players who played in 20 or more games averaging double digit minutes.