The Kent State women’s basketball team begins their 2024-2025 season Monday night by hosting the James Madison Dukes in the first round of the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge. The matchup features two of the top mid-major programs in the country as Kent State debuted at #16 in the CollegeInsider.com poll, while James Madison was picked #13.
James Madison was picked to win the Sun Belt Conference, and redshirt Junior Guard Peyton McDaniel was picked as preseason Player of the Year. Kseniia Kozlova, a redshirt senior post was named to the second team while Ro Scott a graduate student guard was named to the third team.
The Flashes, under the direction of Head Coach Todd Starkey are coming off their first NCAA appearance in 22 years. Picked second in the MAC, the Golden Flashes have high expectations and hopes to pursue another championship. Unfortunately they will start the season shorthanded as an ACL injury will sideline South Dakota transfer Joy Bergstrom for the season. Lingering injury issues to point guard Corynne Hauser will test Kent State’s depth early, especially against the veteran Dukes.
“This year we open up with maybe one of the toughest games of the season in James Madison,” Starkey said on our Kent State Basketball Preview Show on October 30. “People may not recognize them as a big time program so to speak because they are not a power five school but James Madison I think is a borderline top 25 team that’s going to come in here with a ton of experience and got picked to win the Sun Belt for good reason so we’re gonna have our hands full. We’re a little bit short handed as far as injuries go, and to be playing them at home is going to be difficult.”
Starkey brought in a very talented roster with a mix of returning veterans, talented newcomers, and role players from last year that could step into bigger roles. With injuries changing the complexion of the season, Starkey knows this is still a championship caliber team.
“The hard part for me is the, I really like the roster we brought in and thought it had the ability to start getting votes in the top 25 poll if we could pull off some wins and the unfortunate part is we’ve just some some through a really tough injury stretch thats gonna prevent us from being our best based on the roster.”
“Now were going to be at our best based on who’s available. We’re going to compete and I think we still have a great team that can pursue a championship, it just makes it more challenging with some of the injuries we sustained and we kind of have to retool how play here in short order. It may not look like the finished product at the beginning but I guarantee you were gonna be playing our best basketball when it matters most.”
Kent State’s four veterans in Jenna Batsch, Bridget Dunn, Dionna Gray and Janae Tyler all got valuable experience last year in a run that gave Notre Dame all they could handle in the NCAA tournament. They’ll be asked to lead and produce all season.
The game tips at 7pm. All fans in attendance will receive a replica white jersey. The game is on ESPN+ and the Kent State radio network.