Quick Facts
LOCK HAVEN, Pa.- Following its ninth PSAC Tournament appearance in 10 seasons under the tutelage of head coach
Kiera Wooden, the West Chester University women's basketball team was tabbed fourth in the PSAC East Preseason Coaches' poll as voted upon by the league's coaches. The poll, which featured Lock Haven and Gannon as the preseason favorites in the PSAC Eastern and Western Divisions, was released on Thursday afternoon as a part of PSAC Basketball Virtual Media Day.
Last season, West Chester finished 15-15 overall and 11-10 in league play, advancing to the PSAC Quarterfinals for the seventh time in nine PSAC Tournament appearances under Wooden.
Lock Haven is the preseason favorite in the PSAC East with six first-place votes, while Kutztown, who is set to visit West Chester on the first weekend of the regular season to participate in the Carol Eckman Memorial Classic against Glenville State and Salem, was picked second with three first-place votes. Bloomsburg was voted third, followed by West Chester in fourth, Millersville in fifth, and East Stroudsburg in sixth to round out the would-be playoff field. Shippensburg, Shepherd, and Mansfield rounded out the Eastern Division.
In the PSAC West, Gannon, ranked fifth in the WBCA Preseason Poll, was the unanimous favorite to return to the top of the Western Division, followed by Seton Hill in second and IUP in third. California, Clarion, and Edinboro rounded out the would-be playoff field, while Slippery Rock and Pitt-Johnstown rounded out the Western Division.
If West Chester is to go on a similar run in 2025, the team will need to replace its two leading scorers and First Team All-League selections in
Michelle Kozicki and
Anna McTamney, who accounted for 1,074 of the Golden Rams' 1,957 points last winter.
Bella Mazur (Linwood, N.J./Mainland Regional) will be a big part of this effort as the sophomore guard is the team's leading returning scorer, averaging 8.9 points per game and scoring 266 points in her rookie season. In her first season as a Golden Ram, Mazur had stretches where she looked every bit the part of a top guard for the Golden Rams, scoring in double figures 12 times in 30 games, including a stretch of six double-figure efforts in seven games from late 2024 through the beginning of 2025.
In recent seasons, West Chester has done a phenomenal job of taking advantage of easy points, and last season was no different, shooting a Division II era program-record best 77.7 % (426-for-548) at the free throw line, which was second best in the PSAC and 18
th best in Division II women's basketball.
West Chester will return to tradition this year with the 37
th Carol Eckman Memorial Classic in Hollinger on November 14 and 15. After 35 years of hosting this event every year to start the season, West Chester has transitioned to hosting every other year, with the last time the team hosted in 2023. Kutztown and Salem will be first-time participants in the Eckman, while Glenville State will participate in the event for the third time after also playing in 2017 and 2023. Opening the season at home is the perfect recipe for a young Golden Rams squad, which features eight new players and another who missed the entirety of the 2024-25 season due to preseason injury as the Golden Rams are 34-5 at home since January 2023 and enjoyed a 27-game home winning streak, which was briefly the best Division II women's basketball before the streak was halted in early December last year.
Fans can get their first look at the 2025-26 edition of the Golden Rams next Tuesday night when the team heads to City Avenue to take on Saint Joseph's in a final exhibition for WCU, which will serve as the season-opener for the Hawks. West Chester will play four of its first games of the season in Hollinger Field House, with he one exception being a visit to Division I foe La Salle on November 18, which will be the team's first regular-season game against a Division I opponent since December 2021, when the team fell to George Washington. West Chester will open league play on Saturday, December 6, against Pitt-Johnstown, beginning at 1 p.m.
