Ryan's career defensive day leads to Heart weekly recognition

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Finishing the 2025 portion of their Heart of America Athletic Conference schedule in the 2025-26 season with a home victory this past Saturday, the Clarke University women's basketball team earned their second individual weekly honor of the season as sophomore Reese Ryan was named the Heart Defensive Player of the Week, conference officials announced on Monday.

This is the second-career Heart Defensive Player of the Week honor for the Lodi, Wis. native after she received the recognition last season on Jan. 6, 2025 as she receives this week's honor for, statistically, the best defensive game of her young career as she helped lead the Pride to an 87-64 win over Central Methodist University in the Kehl Center on Dec. 13.

In that game, Ryan produced career-high marks in both steals and blocked shots in a single game as she produced five of each stat after never finishing with more than two blocks or three steals in any of her 30 games played before Saturday.

The five blocked shots ties Ryan for the fifth most blocks in a game in program history with Clarke as a team finishing the game with eight total rejections and 15 steals, which is the most steals in a game by the Pride under head coach Adam Hocking in his three seasons and the most by CU women's basketball in any game since they produced 16 takeaways at Park on Jan. 28, 2023.

Offensively, which didn't factor in to Ryan's honor, the 6-1 forward finished Saturday's game produced 11 points a total of six rebounds, and two assists along with her defensive productivity as her season averages put her at 9.4 points per game on 41.9 percent shooting from the field, with 6.9 rebounds per game, 1.4 steals per game, and 1.2 blocked shots per game.

Ryan joins her teammate Zoe Kennedy in receiving a Heart Player of the Week honor after Kennedy received the Offensive Player of the Week earlier this season on Nov. 10 as both Ryan and Kennedy earned the same award on the same day last season on that same Jan. 6 date.

Full Heart Player of the Week Release: https://heartofamericaconference.com/sports/wbkb/2025-26/releases/20251215vrbo2o

Pride women's basketball will play a pair of non-conference games before the calendars turn to 2026 as they'll first travel to Joliet, Ill. on Wednesday, Dec. 17 with a 5:00 p.m. CT scheduled opening tip between CU and the USF.