University of Northern Iowa Athletics
University of Northern Iowa
La Crosse
Panthers open the regular season against La Crosse
11/4/2024 3:28:00 PM | Women's Basketball
UNI women’s basketball gets the season underway with a matchup against the Eagles of La Crosse inside the McLeod Center.
UNI (0-0 / 0-0 MVC) vs. La Crosse (0-0 / 0-0 WIAC)
- 6 p.m. CT | November 5, 2024
- McLeod Center | Cedar Falls, Iowa
- ESPN+
- Panther Sports Radio Network (Chris Kleinhans-Schulz: Play-by-Play)
CEDAR FALLS --- UNI women's basketball opens the 2024-25 campaign inside the McLeod Center. This will be the third straight season the Panthers have opened on their home court when they host the Eagles of Wisconsin-La Crosse on November 5. The Panthers and the Eagles have met on eight previous occasions with all previous matchups falling the way of La Crosse. The most recent regular-season matchup came in 1982, the first year in which UNI women's athletics joined Division I. These teams met in an exhibition matchup last season inside the McLeod Center.
The Panthers return 10 athletes from last season's roster and add five newcomers including one community college transfer and five freshmen. UNI returns its top five leading scorers (per game) from a season ago including Maya McDermott, Grace Boffeli, Kayba Laube, Emerson Green, and Shateah Wetering. Of the Panthers' 73.41 points per game, returners accounted for 59.31 of those points.
Head coach Tanya Warren is back for her 18th season at the helm of the Panther program. Warren has recorded a 322- 227 record including a 207-103 record in Valley play. Coach Warren is the Valley's winningest coach in MVC games and sits 31 total wins short of the Valley's all-time wins mark.
Last season, Maya McDermott led both Division I men's and women's basketball from the free throw line with a 96.4% free throw percentage. That mark set a new UNI record, a new MVC record, and was the first time a Valley women's basketball player led the country in a stat category since 2013-14. She is the second Panther with such an accomplishment with Jacqui Kalin leading the same category over the 2012-13 season with a 95.5% free throw percentage, UNI's previous single-season record. McDermott also finished the season with the nation's ninth-best assist/turnover ratio with 2.82 assists per turnover. Kayba Laube finished the season sixth in the country in three-point percentage, shooting at 45.5%. She sat ranked fourth on the Panthers all-time list for single-season three-point percentage.
The Panthers bring in five newcomers including one junior college transfer, Kaylee Corbin, and four freshmen Mya Nicholson, Elise Jaeger, Eliana Sheplee, and Kaylynn Janes. Corbin comes to UNI from Kirkwood Community College where she spent two seasons playing for the Eagles. While at Kirkwood, Corbin was a part of the 2024 NJCAA Division II National Championship team and was named an ICCAC All-Region Second-Team forward.
UNI owns active streaks of 16 consecutive seasons at .500 or better in Missouri Valley Conference play and 15 years in a row with at least a top-half finish in the league standings. These are the best active streaks among the 24 total MVC men's and women's basketball programs.
The Panthers enter the 2024-25 season with an active program-record 532-game three-pointer streak that started December 6, 2008, versus Green Bay (6-of-19) following an 0-of-14 outing from behind the three-point arc December 3, 2008, against Northern Illinois.
The 2023-24 season was one for the Panther record books with the current Panther seniors etching their names all over the charts. In 2024- 25, forward Grace Boffeli and guards Maya McDermott and Kayba Laube look to continue to rise in the ranks of the Panther greats. Boffeli looks to break every Panther rebounding record in the book as she currently sits at no. 3 in total rebounds, no. 3 in rebounding average, no. 2 in defensive rebounds, no. 2 in defensive rebounding average, no. 9 in offensive rebounds, and no. 2 in double-doubles. While Boffeli focuses her attention under the basket, Kayba Laube's attention will be squarely focused on the basket as the senior is just 293 points away from being the fourth Panther since the beginning of the 2023-24 season to join the Panthers' 1,000-point club and become the 31st overall member.
Tanya Warren, the longest-tenured active head coach in Missouri Valley Conference women's basketball, sits alone at the top of the Missouri Valley Conference leaderboard in Valley wins with her record-breaking, 202nd conference victory coming against Southern Illinois inside the McLeod Center. Warren is currently second on the Valley's all-game wins list and is 31 wins shy of tying Cindy Scott (Southern Illinois, 1983-98) with 353. Warren has been UNI's wins leader since a 65-64 Panthers victory on March 4, 2017, against Missouri State put her past Tony DiCecco, and she claimed her 300th win last season in an 83-60 blowout on February 12 at Valparaiso.
UNI women's basketball action can be followed all season long on social media on Facebook (UNI Women's Basketball), X (@UNIwbb), and on Instagram (@uni_wbb). The 2024-25 schedule and roster, along with the latest Panther news and information can be found online at UNIpanthers.com.
