Defending regular season co-champion California Lutheran University has been selected as the favorite to win the SCIAC according to the 2024-25 SCIAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll, as voted by the league’s head coaches.
In a sport that has seen three different SCIAC Tournament champions than regular season winners, the women’s basketball coaches expect a tight battle for second place as well as across the rest of the standings, with two other teams also receiving first-place votes.
Led by back-to-back SCIAC Newcomer of the Year winners and 2024 First Team All-Conference picks in
Alline Ballard and
Janna Holley as well as Second Team choice
Sara Mills, the Regals tied with reigning champion University of La Verne at 13-3 records. Near-identical conference results led to SCIAC Tournament hosting rights being determined by coin flip after the foes split against each other and eventual tournament champion Occidental College. Cal Lutheran posted the league’s best offense during the 2023-24 season as the only team to top 70 points per game (71.4) thanks to a league-best .411 shooting percentage and Holley’s top rankings in assists (5.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3).
Champions in the 2020 and 2022 seasons, the University of Redlands has been tabbed as the top challenger to the crown in 2024-25. The All-Conference junior duo of
Colbi Zorich (First Team) and
Aliyah Anderson (Second Team) lifted the Bulldogs into the SCIAC Tournament on the last day of the season with a little help from Caltech to maintain their streak of making the field every year since its inception in 2008.
The two-time defending SCIAC champion Leopards will have bulletin board material after not receiving a first-place vote and slotting third in the poll. The last team to achieve the three-peat of titles was Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges as part of a five-year run from 2015-19 that included two shared trophies. The conference’s premier deep-ball shooter over the last two seasons,
Marissa Howell will look to shoulder even more of the scoring load for last year’s top three-point shooting team with 2024 Offensive Athlete of the Year
Chiara Brown now a member of the coaching staff.
Chapman University picked up one of the two first-place votes not cast for Cal Lutheran after tying for fifth in the conference last season.
Makenna Nitao was one of three first-years to make an All-Conference team last season as the Panthers started clicking in the second half of the schedule, including a run of six consecutive SCIAC wins with victories over CLU and Oxy before the season finale.
Coaching Staff of the Year winner
Anahit Aladzhanyan steered Oxy to its first SCIAC Tournament title and NCAA Championship appearance since 2011 behind the conference’s stingiest three-point defense by a wide margin at .212. First Team All-SCIAC center
Ainsley Shelsta upped her scoring average from 9.9 to 14.4 points per game and rebounding from 7.6 to 9.9 as a sophomore while classmate
Paige Yasukochi made the All-SCIAC Second Team cut in 2023.
Defensive Athlete of the Year
Rhe Nae Leach and Second Team All-SCIAC pick
Lorita Salloom are back for a Whittier College team that started the conference slate with five straight wins last year. The Poets will have a new coach but familiar face in
Kristen Dowling, a Redlands alum who previously coached at CMS and Division I Pepperdine University.
Pomona-Pitzer Colleges’
Jadyn Lee joined Ballard and Nitao as one of three first-years to make an All-Conference team. The do-it-all rookie ranked third in the conference with 3.8 assists, sixth with 15.4 points and 5.9 rebounds, seventh with 0.8 blocks and eighth with 1.9 steals per game alongside
Emily Lee, the conference leader in both three-pointers made and three-point percentage.
CMS rookie
Tanya Ghai also enjoyed a collegiate debut season, ranking seventh with 15.2 points per game and among the top 10 in all three of field goal percentage, free throw percentage and three-pointers made. Defensive standout
Katie Resendiz also ranked third in steals and fourth in blocks. Caltech’s
Kathryn Edwards is back for a final season after back-to-back First Team All-SCIAC nods as the only player in the SCIAC last season to rank among the top 15 in scoring, rebounding, three-pointers, field goal and free throw percentage as well as leading the conference in blocks and coming second in steals.
The season begins on November 8 with Chapman, La Verne, Redlands and Whittier begin play Caltech, Cal Lutheran, CMS, Oxy and Pomona-Pitzer get at least one game in by Monday, Nov. 11.
2024-25 SCIAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll
1. California Lutheran, 79 points (7 first-place votes)
2. Redlands, 62 pts
3. La Verne, 57 pts
4. Chapman, 52 pts (1)
5. Occidental, 39 pts
6. Whittier, 33 pts
7. Pomona-Pitzer, 29 pts
8. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 28 pts
9. Caltech, 26 pts (1)
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