DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Jan. 17, 2024) – The Mercy University women's basketball team hosts ECC foe D'Youville University on Friday, January 19th at 5 p.m. before hosting Daemen University in an ECC matchup on Sunday, January 21st at 7 p.m.
Who, When and Where
Date/Time: Friday, January 19th 5 p.m.
Records: Mercy (9-6, 2-2 ECC), D'Youville (5-9, 3-1 ECC)
Location: Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Date/Time: Sunday, January 21st 12 p.m.
Records: Mercy (9-6, 2-2 ECC), Daemen (9-4, 4-0 ECC)
Location: Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Last Meeting vs. D'Youville
D'Youville earned a 68-49 win over Mercy on February 17, 2023.
Last Meeting vs. Daemen
Daemen earned a 69-59 win over Mercy on February 19, 2023.
Scouting the Mavericks
Mercy is coming off a 49-43 loss at Chestnut Hill on Tuesday. The Mavericks were led by sophomore Angelina Barrera who had a team-high-tying 11 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Junior Jaclyn Stanavich also netted a team-high-tying 11 points. Mercy enters the 2023-24 season picked fourth in the ECC Preseason Poll after going 17-10 last season. The Mavericks recorded their most overall wins in a season since 1989 and had their most ECC wins since 1997. Mercy's third-place finish in the ECC standings was the highest in program history. The Mavericks also had their highest winning percentage since 1986 and hosted their first-ever ECC Championship Game. Mercy looks to qualify for the ECC Championship for the fourth straight year and win their first-ever ECC Championship. Graduate student Katie Wall returns for sixth-year Head Coach Scott Lagas after being named First Team All-ECC and First Team All-Met last season. The guard was named ECC Player of the Week once last season after averaging a team-high 14.0 points per game with 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. Wall had a team-high 54 steals and ranked third in the ECC in points per game last season. Also, returning is sophomore Angelina Barrera who was named to the ECC Honor Roll twice last season after averaging 7.0 points, 4.8 rebounds and had a team-high 21 blocks in 26 games. Junior Jaclyn Stanavich also returns after averaging 6.1 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in 24 games a year ago. Senior Maria Tedesco returns after recording 4.2 points and a team-high 5.3 rebounds per game. Also returning for Lagas are junior Kayla Halvorsen and sophomores Megan Marcotte and Kyla Nembach. Lagas will also look to freshmen Paige Fourtin, Mary McClintock, Layla Greene, Victoria Pfeffer, Molly Boek, Amani Abuhatab and Grace Lesko to help get the Mavericks back to the ECC Championship. The Mavericks have been led so far by Wall who was named ECC Player of the Week on November 13th and December 11th and named to the ECC Honor Roll on December 4th and January 8th and is averaging a team-high 17.3 points per game with 5.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.4 steals per game. The graduate student is fifth in the East Region in points per game and set a new school record with her 193rd career three-pointer against St. Thomas Aquinas on December 2nd. She scored a career-high 40 points in the Mavericks season-opening win over Saint Anselm on November 11th. Stanavich is second on the team with 14.1 points per game and is averaging 6.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.7 steals per game. The junior scored a career-high 25 points against Columbus State on December 16th. Sophomore Angelina Barrera was named ECC Defensive Player of the Week on January 8th and is third on the team with 10.9 points per game and leads the team with 8.7 rebounds per game. The sophomore ranks third in the ECC in rebounds per game. Barrera scored a career-high 23 points with 13 rebounds in the win over Caldwell on January 3rd. Tedesco is recording 5.7 rebounds per game and 2.0 assists per game to go along with 5.9 points per game. Halvorsen is netting 4.5 points per game. Barrera and Stanavich were named to the ECC Honor Roll on November 20th and Stanavich has been named to the Honor Roll five times with the most recent time coming on January 16th. Mercy is 2-3 all-time against D'Youville and is 2-0 at home against the Saints. The Mavericks are 2-18 all-time against Daemen and have dropped the last 15 meetings. Mercy last defeated the Wildcats in 2016 and last defeated Daemen at home in 2014. With a win, the Mavericks would have double-digit wins for the third straight season for the first time since they had six straight seasons of 10 or more wins from 1987-1993.
Scouting the Saints
D'Youville is coming off an 80-61 win over District of Columbia on January 12th. The Saints were picked fifth in the ECC Preseason Poll after going 13-14 last season. D'Youville is led by Anna Jankovic who averages a team-high 15.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game on 44.8 percent shooting. Stella Mollica is second on the team with 9.1 points per game and dishes out a team-high 4.6 assists per game. Brianne Moxley nets 7.6 points per game and Jaelyn Vleer-Elliott records 6.9 points per game on a team-high 47.1 percent shooting.
Scouting the Wildcats
Daemen is coming off a73-54 win over Staten Island on January 12th. The Wildcats will play at St. Thomas Aquinas on Friday before playing at Mercy on Sunday. Daemen was picked second in the ECC Preseason Poll after going 20-5 last season. The Wildcats won the ECC Championship last season for the third time in four seasons and played in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight season. Daemen is currently ranked No. 8 in the latest D2CSC East Region Top 10 Poll. The Wildcats are led by Alahna Paige who averages an East Region-best 20.2 points per game with a team-high 2.8 assists per game. Paige shoots 45.6 percent from downtown and makes 3.2 threes per game. Gabby McDuffie is second on the team with 10.6 points per game and Claire Pikett is third with 7.7 points per game.
Next Game
Mercy plays at Staten Island on Wednesday, January 24th at 5:30 p.m.
