The 2026-27 Ivy League season will conclude with the conference tournament at The Palestra, Penn’s historic arena that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this season.
By the time four teams get there in March, it could be a historic year for the league, too.
In recent years, the Ivy League has consistently been one of the best mid-major conferences in women’s basketball. Last season alone, it earned 15 wins over power-conference teams, including four by Columbia in its run to the WBIT championship. Princeton, Columbia and Harvard all made the NCAA Tournament in the past two seasons. And programs toward the bottom of the standings have gotten much stronger over the past decade, as Cornell’s upset of Columbia last January showed.
“We are trending in the right direction, and it’s something that I have been noticing for at least a decade that … the quality of basketball has just steadily increased,” Ivy League executive director Robin Harris told reporters at the league’s preseason media day on Oct. 8. “And I think in the last three to five years, we’ve seen that recognized outside the league.”
This season, the competition in the Ancient Eight could be especially stiff. Eleven of the 15 players who earned All-Ivy honors last season are back, and the conference’s eight teams are returning a median of 74% of their scoring. Both of those marks are the highest since 2022-23, according to The IX Sports’ calculations.
Alongside the top talent, depth was a buzzword at media day, as coach after coach commented on their teams being deeper than they were a season ago. Every team has at least nine players back who appeared in a game last season, and Harvard returns a league-best 13 players. Yale has a league-high 19 total players on its roster, including 11 who played game minutes last season.
“You can’t coach experience,” Harvard head coach Carrie Moore told reporters at media day.
“These are some of the most talented athletes and some of the smartest people you’ll ever meet,” Princeton head coach Lauren Gosselin said at media day. “And when you go from top to bottom through our league, it’s disciplined, high-level basketball.”
Here is each team’s outlook for the 2026-27 season, starting at the top of the preseason poll. Many statistics are from the teams’ websites; all other data sources are hyperlinked. (Note: There may be small differences across sources because Ivy League teams occasionally play Division III or NAIA opponents, and certain sources only count games against Division I opponents. The statistics below the team names include all opponents.)
You can read about every team or jump to your favorite using the following links:
Brown | Columbia | Cornell | Dartmouth | Harvard | Penn | Princeton | Yale
Princeton
2025-26 record: 26-4 (12-2 Ivy, 1st in regular season)
Preseason ranking: 1st (15 out of 21 first-place votes, 161 total points)
Percentage of minutes returning: 78.6% (3rd-highest in the league)
Percentage of points returning: 76.6% (4th-highest in the league)
Top returners:
- Fadima Tall, senior guard/forward (13.0 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 2.5 SPG in 2025-26)
- Skye Belker, senior guard (12.9 PPG, 2.7 APG, 43.0% 3-point shooting)
- Ashley Chea, senior guard (10.1 PPG, 3.8 APG, 1.4 SPG)
Incoming transfers: None
At media day, senior guard Skye Belker was asked how the transition from former head coach Carla Berube to current head coach Lauren Gosselin has gone for the team.
“It’s terrible,” Belker joked. “No, I would say it’s [been] … pretty seamless.”
Gosselin had been on Berube’s staff since 2019 and recruited every player on the roster. The players trust her and are used to hearing her voice. So it feels like there’s a lot of continuity, not change — especially with four starters back for their senior year.
Those seniors are Belker, point guard Ashley Chea, guard/forward Fadima Tall and guard/forward Olivia Hutcherson. Each of them averaged between 10 and 13 points per game last season. Their production trailed only that of first-team All-Ivy guard Madison St. Rose, who is now a graduate transfer at Notre Dame after exhausting her Ivy eligibility.
So the goal this season is the same as always: Win the Ivy League and win NCAA Tournament games. Last season, the Tigers won their fourth regular-season Ivy championship and fourth conference tournament title in the past five seasons. But they haven’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2023, before any of the current players were enrolled.
To get there, Gosselin is keeping Princeton’s defense-first identity from the Berube days, including its mantra, “Get Stops.” In three of Berube’s six seasons, Princeton finished the year ranked in the top 10 nationally in points allowed per 100 possessions.
“[Berube would] be proud: We did shell [drill] for about an hour in practice the other day,” Gosselin told reporters at media day. “… I’m a little bit more offensive-minded, and you’ll see that reflected in how we play this year. But it starts with defense. We defend, we rebound and we run, in that order.”
Last season, the Tigers uncharacteristically struggled on defense, ranking 169th out of 363 Division I teams in points allowed per 100 possessions. But the players believe those shortcomings are in the past.
“In practice, our team has been really gritty on defense,” Hutcherson said at media day. “… We’ve been focused on the little details. So where should we be in help? Where should we be if we’re one pass away? Stuff like that. And I think so far, the team has been really good at just being receptive to that feedback. … So I think so far, we’re looking pretty good.”
Offensively, the Tigers ranked 21st nationally last season in points scored per 100 possessions. They made 50.5% of their 2-pointers and 34.5% of their threes. But Gosselin believes they can still reach another level of connectivity and offensive flow.
“I don’t want them to be robots,” she said. “So we’ve been working on ways where they can play to their strengths. Yes, there might be a play or a system attached to it, but it’s not a ‘this, then that’ formula. … There’s no wrong answer at some point.”
Around the four senior stars, Princeton has a little more depth and size this season. Senior guard Mari Bickley returns after not being rostered last season, and five juniors and sophomores are back, including top reserve Toby Nweke.
The Tigers will likely still be undersized in most games. But they know what their championship formula is.
“We stay hungry,” Belker said. “… [We’re] starting every season like we have something to prove because we do. … We have people coming for us, and we know that. But [we’re] not playing like we’re the top dog. I think it’s playing like we are the underdogs, playing hungry every time.”
Columbia
2025-26 record: 25-8 (11-3 Ivy, 2nd)
Preseason ranking: 2nd (5 first-place votes, 149 points)
Percentage of minutes returning: 70.6% (5th)
Percentage of points returning: 66.3% (7th)
Top returners:
- Riley Weiss, senior guard (20.1 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 37.8% 3-point shooting, Ivy League Player of the Year in 2025-26)
- Mia Broom, junior guard (8.2 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 36.4% 3-point shooting)
- Fliss Henderson, senior guard (6.8 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 3.7 APG)
Incoming transfers:
- Mary Ashley Stevenson, junior forward (Stanford/Purdue)
These days, most conversations about Columbia start with senior guard Riley Weiss. Last season, Weiss set Columbia’s single-season scoring record and became only the third Lion ever to win Ivy League Player of the Year. Now, she’s back for more as the first Player of the Year to have Ivy eligibility left since Princeton’s Kaitlyn Chen in 2023.
“You coach to coach players like Riley Weiss,” head coach Megan Griffith told reporters at media day. “… The hardest part about guarding Riley Weiss is she’s not just doing one thing. So I just think her ability and willingness to continue to grow her skill set has been the most impressive thing.”
With Weiss leading the way (and fellow Player of the Year Abbey Hsu before her), Columbia has achieved a lot in the past four years. It won its first regular-season Ivy title, its first outright title and its first Division I NCAA Tournament game in program history. Last season, the Lions also won the WBIT. In Weiss’ senior year, they’re looking to win the Ivy League Tournament for the first time, which would give them an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Lions have a deep group of guards around Weiss to help with that mission. Starters Fliss Henderson and Marija Avlijas both return as seniors. Junior Mia Broom burst onto the scene in the WBIT with Henderson and Avlijas injured. And junior Nasi Simmons set the program’s single-game record of 10 steals last season.
“I’m really confident that this guard group … has the maturity to bounce back and be as resilient as possible,” Griffith said. “And that also is the hallmark of a great team, is how quickly can you get to the next thing when things aren’t going well? … So I’m excited to see how this guard group blends.”
Columbia had more roster turnover in the frontcourt, as starting forwards Perri Page and Susie Rafiu both graduated and turned professional. But transfer Mary Ashley Stevenson slotted in extremely well during the Lions’ summer trip to Japan, and senior Hilke Feldrappe also elevated her play during the WBIT.
“We have a lot of, I would say, ball-dominant players … but Hilke plays this really key role as that off-ball [big],” Stevenson told The IX Sports in September. “She knows when to cut. She knows when to make the right pass. She knows how to make all of it work, and she’s kind of that glue player.”
Overall, the Lions are loaded with talent and experience, as nine of their 14 players are juniors or seniors. But they also added an ESPN top-100 recruit, first-year guard/forward Mathis Dritz. After the foreign tour, Griffith praised her first-years for how they’d contributed alongside their older teammates.
When the Lions break for final exams in December, their record may not reflect how good they are. That’s because they have an incredibly difficult nonconference schedule, featuring 12 teams that won 20-plus games last season. In a 10-day span, they’ll play Michigan, Maryland and Duke. (They won’t have Griffith for their first three games due to a university suspension.)
“[The schedule] speaks volumes to the belief that my staff and I have in this group,” Griffith said. “… If you want to do things you’ve never done, you have to put yourself in positions that you’ve never been in, and you gotta challenge yourself the way you’ve never been challenged.”
“We have such a tough nonconference, which is perfect for us,” Henderson added. “So the more that we can attack that, that’s only going to set us up better for March.”
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Harvard
2025-26 record: 20-12 (10-4 Ivy, 3rd)
Preseason ranking: 3rd (1 first-place vote, 131 points)
Percentage of minutes returning: 68.4% (6th)
Percentage of points returning: 71.0% (5th)
Top returners:
- Karlee White, senior guard (15.0 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 51.8% field goal percentage in 2025-26)
- Abigail Wright, senior forward (13.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 48.3% 2-point percentage)
- Olivia Jones, sophomore guard (6.1 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 38.3% 3-point shooting, Ivy League Rookie of the Year)
Incoming transfers: None
The Crimson had an excellent season last year, as they beat three power-conference teams, made the Ivy League Tournament final and advanced to the WBIT quarterfinals. At the same time, there is still some unfinished business.
Harvard has finished third in the regular season in each of the past four years, which has become somewhat frustrating. And its 2025-26 season ended with an overtime loss to Wisconsin in which it led by 7 points with 30 seconds left in regulation.
“I think some of the habits that we have culturally are third-place habits,” head coach Carrie Moore told reporters on Wednesday, reflecting on the program’s stasis. “And I think [we’re] challenging [the players with], ‘What are these habits that need to change and shift?’ And … really reminding them every single day, ‘First-place habits.’”
So Harvard’s mantra for this season is easy to say but hard to do: Finish everything. The team has emphasized finishing practices the way it wants to finish games and understanding that a game can change dramatically in just a few minutes.
“A loss like that to end your junior season really puts things in perspective and reminds you of why you do what you do,” senior forward Abigail Wright told reporters at media day. “… [It] really elevates the level of motivation and sense of urgency … to be better than we were last year in that regard.”
Leading the charge for the Crimson are Wright and senior guard Karlee White, who were the team’s top scorers last season. They’ve experienced nearly every outcome in their careers, including making the NCAA Tournament and that heartbreaking WBIT loss. They’ve also played different roles, as they made two of the three largest jumps in scoring in the Ivy League last season to go from role players to stars.
Wright and White were co-captains last season, so now they’re experienced leaders, too. Moore said at media day that they are “as connected as they can be,” pointing out that their dorm rooms are next door to each other.
“That literally translates to what they do on the basketball court and the connection that they have,” she said.
But White and Wright don’t have to do it alone. “Depth really is our superpower,” Wright said of the 16-player roster.
Moore wants to use that depth to play faster on offense. In the past, the Crimson have upped the pace of games by pressing on defense, but this year, they want to speed up their attack and take advantage of their 3-point shooting.
In particular, expect senior guard Mary Hollensteiner to have a bigger role. At 6’1, she can play as a wing shooter or a stretch forward.
But ultimately, Moore believes that Harvard’s success will hinge on the production it gets from its sophomores and juniors. Sophomore guard Olivia Jones, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, will round out Harvard’s Big Three with White and Wright. Junior guard Lydia Chatira will run the point, allowing Jones and White to play mostly off the ball. Junior guard Alayna Rocco and junior forward Asani Ceaser should both factor in off the bench.
In addition, Moore expects sophomore guard/forward Aubrey Shaw, a former top-65 recruit, to have a breakout season after averaging just 7.6 minutes per game last year. Fellow sophomores Maya Nahar, Sam Wills and Ava Krumwiede will also have opportunities to establish themselves.
If all of that comes together, this might be the year Harvard finishes higher than third — and maybe even wins its first Ivy regular-season title since 2008.
Penn
2025-26 record: 17-10 (7-7 Ivy, 5th)
Preseason ranking: 4th (104 points)
Percentage of minutes returning: 67.3% (7th)
Percentage of points returning: 69.7% (6th)
Top returners:
- Katie Collins, junior forward (13.0 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 37.5% 3-point shooting in 2025-26)
- Mataya Gayle, senior guard (12.4 PPG, 4.5 APG, 3.0 RPG)
- Tina Njike, senior center (8.9 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 1.0 BPG)
Incoming transfers:
- Candice Lienafa, junior forward (Davidson)
- Christina Pham, sophomore guard (Fairfield)
After Penn fell just short of the 2026 Ivy League Tournament, the players had a sour taste in their mouths. None of them had ever missed Ivy Madness before — and they have no intention of missing it again this season.
Guard Mataya Gayle, a former Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Penn’s second-leading scorer last season, stayed on campus over the summer to prepare for her senior year. Now, head coach Mike McLaughlin believes she’s stronger and in the best shape of her career.
“I knew I needed to get stronger to be able to play defense better and just compete as an undersized guard, to be able to hold my own,” Gayle told reporters at media day. “I don’t want to be a liability to my team, and also just personally, I wanted to improve as much as I could.”
Last season, Penn’s defense ranked in the top 100 nationally. The Quakers’ main problem was getting consistent production around Gayle and now-junior forward Katie Collins, their leading scorer last season. Just six players averaged more than 10 minutes per game, and two of them graduated last spring.
That leaves senior center Tina Njike and junior guard Brooke Suttle as the returning core around Gayle and Collins. McLaughlin told reporters that Njike “has probably grown the most out of everyone. … She’s off to an absolute[ly] awesome start.” And Suttle said at media day that she worked hard in the offseason to improve her playmaking and become a more consistent 3-point shooter.
Beyond those four, McLaughlin expects first-year guard Rachel Thatcher to make an immediate splash.
“She gives us a level of physicality and speed and toughness, and her ability to defend is at a high, high level,” he said. “I think she’ll impact us [from] Day 1.”
In addition, junior guard Ashna Tambe, senior guard Ese Ogbevire and junior forward Gabriella Kelley could all see their roles increase after averaging between seven and 10 minutes per game last season. Davidson transfer Candice Lienafa will also compete for minutes in the frontcourt, so McLaughlin expects to have more depth and lineup flexibility than he had last season.
The Quakers sometimes struggled on the glass last season, pulling down 50.8% of available rebounds. That ranked about average nationally. But McLaughlin said his team has been more physical this season, and if it can rebound more, it may be able to run more and get easier baskets for its supporting cast. Last season, Penn was one of the slowest-paced teams in the country despite having players like Gayle and Collins who like to play up tempo.
In the 2010s, Penn regularly dueled with Princeton for the conference crown. The Quakers have slipped a little bit since the league returned from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, finishing between third and fifth every year. But this group is aiming to send Gayle and her classmates out on a higher note.
“The standard that we have for ourselves and that we’ve had in the past is not only at a high level, but we continue to raise it,” Suttle said. “… We want so much more than what we’re achieving.”
Brown
2025-26 record: 16-11 (8-6 Ivy, 4th)
Preseason ranking: 5th (74 points)
Percentage of minutes returning: 44.8% (8th)
Percentage of points returning: 35.5% (8th)
Top returners:
- Gia Powell, junior guard (8.7 PPG, 1.5 RPG, 1.1 APG in 2024-25; missed 2025-26 due to injury)
- Olivia Young, senior guard (7.4 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 1.5 SPG in 2025-26)
- Charlotte Adams-Lopez, sophomore guard (5.3 PPG, 2.4 APG, 2.3 RPG)
Incoming transfers: None
Last season, Brown made its first Ivy Madness appearance since 2017. With six seniors on the roster, it had felt like a make-or-break season to climb into the league’s top four, and the Bears delivered.
Now, it’s time for “Brown 2.0,” head coach Monique LeBlanc told reporters at media day.
“Certainly, we’re competing to win a conference championship now,” she said. “But … we want to continue to just reload and elevate our program year after year. I don’t think we’re only focused on making Ivy Madness; I think we’re focused on maximizing the talent in this gym and getting as far as this group can go.”
However, the Bears lost the most production of any Ivy League team, with more than half of their minutes and nearly two-thirds of their points from last season graduating. Four of their top five scorers are gone, including stars Grace Arnolie and Alyssa Moreland.
So Brown will double down on defense and rebounding, which were key to its breakthrough last season. The Bears ranked in the top 20% of teams nationally last season in points allowed per 100 possessions and total rebounding rate, just a year after being below average in both.
LeBlanc also believes the team has more 3-point shooting this year than it did last year. Last season, Brown attempted 22.4 threes per game but made just 29.1%.
Leading the way will be the lone returning full-time starter, senior guard Olivia Young. She is known for hitting clutch shots, including scoring 9 points in two overtimes against Penn last season. She’s a candidate to make one of the biggest scoring jumps in the conference after averaging 7.4 points per game as a junior.
“Liv’s our senior, our leader, [the] person we look up to the most,” junior guard Gia Powell said at media day. “… Obviously, she’s a sharpshooter. If we need a shot, give it to her. And … Liv’s so athletic. She’s a shot-blocker. I experienced it like three times yesterday in practice.”
Powell, who missed her sophomore season with a knee injury, will be relied on to complement Young offensively.
“She’s one of our go-to players just to get a bucket,” Young said at media day. “Her midrange has been looking phenomenal, and she’s been finishing really well over our bigs.”
Sophomore point guard Charlotte Adams-Lopez also returns after an impressive rookie season. She’ll set the table for Young and Powell but also provide some scoring punch. Junior guard Monét Witherspoon could have a bigger role, too, in her second season at Brown after transferring from Tufts.
In the frontcourt, sophomore Isabella Wesley and junior Aima Ofunrein have each played key roles off the bench in their careers and could take on more responsibility. LeBlanc also added some size to the roster with two first-years, 6’3 Nalah Smith and 6’2 Summer Lee.
This year’s team is significantly younger than last year’s, with 10 underclassmen and just two seniors. The odds will be stacked against the Bears in such an experienced conference. But LeBlanc is enjoying the challenge of putting players in new roles and maintaining the momentum.
“This group is totally taking on its own vibe and chemistry, and it’s one that we’re all really enjoying,” she said. “And I think that the competition level is excellent. I think that’s where it needs to be.”
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Cornell
2025-26 record: 9-18 (4-10 Ivy, 6th)
Preseason ranking: 6th (60 points)
Percentage of minutes returning: 84.0% (1st)
Percentage of points returning: 80.4% (2nd)
Top returners:
- Rachel Kaus, senior guard/forward (11.2 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 36.4% 3-point percentage in 2025-26)
- Clarke Jackson, senior guard (9.6 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 2.0 APG)
- Paige Engels, junior guard (5.9 PPG, 2.8 APG, 2.1 RPG)
Incoming transfers: None
In head coach Emily Garner’s first two seasons, Cornell made incremental improvements. For example, the Big Red won one conference game the year before she arrived, then three in Year 1 and four last season.
Cornell also improved dramatically at sharing the ball. It assisted on 67.9% of its made field goals last season, which ranked 11th in the country. Just two years prior, that share was 50.8%, which ranked 261st.
Early in Year 3, Garner is seeing more growth. Cornell returns 84.0% of its minutes from last season — the most in the Ivy League — so there is plenty of continuity. It also added more depth, which has made practices much more competitive.
“We are operating with a level of toughness, with a level of togetherness that we haven’t seen … in the previous years,” Garner told reporters at media day.
Garner credited senior guard/forward Rachel Kaus and senior guard Clarke Jackson, the top returning scorers, with setting the tone. And there’s some confidence built up from Cornell’s biggest wins last season, including the one over Columbia.
Around Kaus and Jackson, starting guards Paige Engels and Kelsey Langston also return. In each of the past two seasons, those four players have all averaged at least 24 minutes per game, giving them plenty of familiarity on the court.
“We trust each other with everything, especially at the end of games,” Kaus said at media day about the team’s cohesion overall. “… I think [it’s] just trusting each other, trusting that everyone’s going to do their role, and that we’re sticking to our game plan and trying our hardest.”
Despite the high assist rate, the Big Red have struggled offensively throughout Garner’s tenure, averaging among the fewest points per game in the country. Last season, though, they unlocked more offense through 3-point shooting. They took 17.7 threes per game and made 31.8%, up from 13.0 and 25.9% in 2024-25.
This season, they’ll look to build on that by playing faster and diversifying their 3-point threats. Last season, then-senior forward Emily Pape took 6.5 threes per game, almost four more than any other player. This year, with Pape playing overseas after graduation, Cornell will spread those shots among several players. Junior guard Audrey Chen is likely in line for more shots, as is sophomore guard/forward Ally Pape, Emily’s sister.
“I think what we have this year is a deeper team in a lot of ways,” Garner said. “And I think where Em was such a consistent target … [now] we have a lot of targets on the scouting reports, a lot of people who can stretch that floor and move into those positions. And we have different lineups this year in a way that we didn’t necessarily have last year.”
Last season, the Big Red didn’t qualify for Ivy Madness, but the tournament took place in their home gym, Newman Arena. Several Cornell players watched from the stands, and Kaus and Jackson said that experience reinforced their desire to qualify for the tournament.
So with Penn hosting the 2027 tournament, Kaus and Jackson have a goal as seniors. They don’t want to take just one more trip to the Palestra in their careers, for a regular-season game in February. They want a second trip in March.
Yale
2025-26 record: 7-20 (3-11 Ivy, 7th)
Preseason ranking: 7th (48 points)
Percentage of minutes returning: 83.9% (2nd)
Percentage of points returning: 86.1% (1st)
Top returners:
- Ciniya Moore, junior guard (17.4 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 36.2% 3-point shooting in 2025-26)
- Luisa Vydrova, senior forward (10.6 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.1 APG)
- Mary Meng, senior forward (6.8 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 2.3 BPG)
Incoming transfers:
- Cloe Vecina, junior guard (Oregon State)
With 19 players on the roster, Yale has an enviable mix of returners and newcomers. The Bulldogs graduated just one player from last season, do-everything forward Kiley Capstraw, and brought in five first-years and junior transfer Cloe Vecina. So just a few years after Yale was so decimated by injuries that it only played three-on-three all preseason, it’s sometimes playing five-on-five-on-five in practice.
The scouting report on the Bulldogs starts with their Big Three: junior guard Ciniya Moore, senior forward Luisa Vydrova and senior forward Mary Meng. This will be the trio’s second season together after Vydrova and Meng transferred in before the 2025-26 season.
“I think our chemistry as a three has really even gotten better since last season,” Moore told reporters at media day. “… I know where Mary wants the ball high; I know where Lu has her pull-up. And I think we’re just playing really well together and finding each other, and we know when we’re in a groove, it’s really hard to stop.”
Last season, Moore had the largest increase in scoring in the Ivy League, going from 5.6 points per game as a first-year to 17.4 as a sophomore. This offseason, she added more counters to her go-to moves, understanding that defenses know her tendencies now.
At 6’1, Vydrova is extremely versatile and can play anything from point forward to post. She combines with the 6’5 Meng to give Yale a front line that every opponent has to plan around. Meng led the team in rebounding last season, but she said at media day that she’s ready to be more of a scoring threat as a senior.
Having upperclassmen back in key roles is something head coach Dalila Eshe has strived for throughout her four-plus years at Yale. Junior guards Marisa Chapman and Ke’iara Odume also return after averaging more than 20 minutes per game last season. Sophomore forward Dora Kastl is the lone underclassman who averaged big minutes last season, starting 11 of her 16 games played.
“We’re really excited about the junior class and also our senior class,” Eshe said at media day. “What that actually looks like with upperclassmen leadership … and being able to play the way that we wanted to for a long time — it’s like all the pieces are coming together.”
One of the Bulldogs’ biggest keys to success this season will be limiting turnovers. In each of the past two seasons, they averaged 18 turnovers per game, which ranked in the bottom 20% nationally. They’ll also try to play faster, which could create easier looks but also lead to turnovers. And with so many players on the roster, Eshe can sub liberally to maintain that pace.
So looking ahead to Year 5, Eshe is optimistic that this is the year her team takes a leap forward.
“We have a team that is fully bought in,” she said. “… Every day that I leave, I question myself: How can I be better? How can I communicate better to this team? … And they do the same thing as players. And we’re in a space right now where we’re living on leveling up.”
Dartmouth
2025-26 record: 10-17 (1-13 Ivy, 8th)
Preseason ranking: 8th (29 points)
Percentage of minutes returning: 75.9% (4th)
Percentage of points returning: 77.2% (3rd)
Top returners:
- Zeynep Ozel, junior guard (10.5 PPG, 3.7 APG, 2.5 RPG in 2025-26)
- Catherine MacDonald, senior forward (8.8 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 1.2 BPG)
- Alexandra Eldredge, senior guard (7.8 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 1.1 SPG)
Incoming transfers:
- Magda Freire, junior guard (Queens University of Charlotte)
This summer, the Big Green read “The No Complaining Rule,” a book by Jon Gordon about finding solutions to workplace problems rather than dwelling in negativity. So head coach Linda Cimino won’t complain about how her rebuild has gone more slowly than she’d like entering Year 4.
“We’re doing it the right way. We’re doing it with integrity,” she told reporters at media day.
One sign of progress last season was the Big Green’s 8-2 start, their best since 1989-90. But they went 2-15 the rest of the way, including 1-13 in conference play.
“We learned how to win last year in the nonconference,” Cimino said. “… Now we’ve got to pull those wins together in the conference.”
Two of Cimino’s points of emphasis in preseason have been improving on the defensive glass and reducing turnovers. Last season, Dartmouth grabbed just 63.7% of available defensive rebounds, which ranked in the bottom 10% of teams nationally. Its turnover rate was in the bottom 30%.
Cimino also implemented a new transition offense in practices before the team’s foreign tour this summer, in hopes that Dartmouth can score a little more than the 55.8 points per game it averaged last season.
Dartmouth returns its top four scorers from last season: junior point guard Zeynep Ozel, senior forward Catherine MacDonald, senior guard Alexandra Eldredge and junior forward Olivia Austin. Cimino said Eldredge “is shooting the lights out of the ball right now” after making the third-most threes (32) on the team last season.
Transfer guard Magda Freire is also expected to buoy the offense after averaging 6.8 points per game on 34.2% 3-point shooting as a sophomore at Queens University of Charlotte. MacDonald said at media day that Freire’s “passion for the game is really bringing us all up.”
In addition, Cimino expects sophomore forward Debra Hill to be one of the team’s top rebounders after averaging just 10.9 minutes per game as a first-year. Senior guard Sierra Carson will always have a rotation spot with her versatility and hustle, especially with how she runs the floor in transition.
Alongside the more experienced players, first-year forward Peyton Hoblock is also contending for a starting spot. At 6’3, she brings more size than MacDonald, Austin and Hill, who are all 6’1. But Hoblock has particularly set herself apart with her passing.
“She might be one of the best passing post players I’ve ever coached,” Cimino said.
In preseason, the Big Green are focused on doing the work to set themselves up for a breakthrough season — one they hope will lead to the program’s first Ivy League Tournament appearance.*
“We have to do the hard [things] now,” MacDonald said. “We have to … put that work in now, and everything that we’re building is going to make the rest of the season that much more fun.
“And it’s fun when you’re winning, and I want to be able to get there with this team.”
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*Ivy League women’s basketball also had a postseason tournament from the inaugural season in 1974-75 through 1981-82. The formats varied, but none were the four-team format that the league has today, and none led directly to the NCAA Tournament.
