DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Nov. 11, 2021) – The Mercy College women's basketball team opens up their 2021-22 season on Friday, November 12th when they take on Dominican at St. Aquinas College. The Mavericks look to qualify for the ECC Tournament for the second straight year with 11 returners from the 2020-21 squad and four newcomers.
"Our belief is that we have a lot of talented young women with great work ethic and high character. We are excited to play a challenging schedule opening up with two NCAA tournament teams on Conference Challenge weekend. I look forward to watching them succeed on and off the court this year," stated Head Coach Scott Lagas.
The Mavericks are looking to build off a COVID-19 shortened season in which they defeated St. Thomas Aquinas for the first time since 2009 and made their first appearance in the ECC Tournament since 2009. Mercy was picked seventh in the ECC Coaches' Poll with the top six teams qualifying for the year-end ECC Tournament.
Lagas will look to junior Katie Wall who was named Second Team All-ECC last year after averaging a team-high 13.9 points, 2.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game. She ranked fourth in the ECC in points per game, third in three-point field goal percentage and was second in steals per game.
Also returning for Lagas is junior Kellie Nudd who had a strong sophomore year for the Mavericks, averaging a career-high 8.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in eight games. She was second on the team in scoring.
Sophomore Jamie Waldron returns to Mercy after a strong freshman campaign in which she averaged 6.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in nine games. Senior Taysha Bender also comes back for Lagas and has started 44 games in three seasons with 534 points in 64 games. Sophomore Asya Brandon also had a successful freshman season in 2021, averaging 5.6 points per game.
Junior Briana Barnard will also return for Lagas after starting all nine games in 2021. She posted 4.1 points and 3.0 rebounds per game in 2021. Senior Brianne Santos, juniors Asha Talib, Brianna Lee and Jamiela Moore and sophomore Maria Tedesco will also look to compete for minutes.
Leading the newcomers for Lagas is senior transfer Sara Hopkins. The transfer from Concordia College averaged 6.8 points and a team-high 5.6 assists per game as a junior last year for the Clippers, who made the NCAA Tournament. During her three-year career with Concordia, she averaged 8.2 points and 3.8 assists per game.
Also joining the team for 2021-22 are freshmen Abrielle Racine, Kayla Halvorsen and Jaclyn Stanavich. Halvorsen is from Dobbs Ferry and was named All-League, All-Conference and All-Tournament at Dobbs Ferry High School. Racine was named First Team All-Conference, 6th Team All-State and scored 1,054 points at Northeastern Clinton Senior High School.
Lagas will look to the 11 returners and four newcomers to help lead the Mavericks to a second straight ECC Tournament berth.
