CEDAR FALLS – The UNI women’s basketball team opens the 2023-24 campaign inside the McLeod Center on Monday night in a matchup against the Green Bay Phoenix. The Panthers and the Phoenix have met on 10 other occasions, dating back to their first-ever meeting in 1988.
UNI and Green Bay have met four times in the Tanya Warren era with all four falling the way of the Phoenix. Most recently, Green Bay picked up a 54-53 victory in 2012.
This season, the Panthers were named the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) preseason favorites in the preseason poll. They return three of their starters from a season ago and seven others while bringing in three newcomers. Of the starters returning, guard Maya McDermott and forward Grace Boffeli were named to the MVC Preseason First team with Boffeli being awarded Preseason Player of the Year honors.
Last season, guard Maya McDermott and forwards Ryley Goebel and Grace Boffeli were awarded all-conference honors. Boffeli was named to the All-MVC First Team as well as the MCV All-Tournament team, the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District team, and the All-MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team. McDermott was named the MVC Most Improved Player as well as to the All-MVC Second Team and CSC Academic All-District Team. Finally, Goebel earned MVC All-Freshman Team honors.
The Panthers were led last season by Grace Boffeli in scoring (531), rebounds (303) and field goal percentage (55.3%). Maya McDermott led the way for UNI in three-pointers made (60) and assists (116), while Ryley Goebel led Northern Iowa in blocks (41) and steals (43) coming off the bench.
In last week’s exhibition, the Panthers scored 20+ points in each quarter with 29 points in both the first and second quarters, 24 points in the third quarter, and 20 points in the fourth. Riley Wright led all scorers with 17 total points. She added two rebounds and three assists, shooting 66.7% from the floor (8-for-12). Five Panthers scored in double digits with Riley Wright’s 17 points, Grace Boffeli’s 15 points, Ellie Foster’s 13 points, and 11 points from both Rachel Heittola and Kayba Laube. The matchup was an offensive clinic from the Panthers who recorded a 53.4% field goal percentage over the course of 40 minutes including almost 40% from three-point range.
For Green Bay, the Phoenix welcomed in four newcomers to the 2023-24 squad. Green Bay added a trio of true freshmen into the mix as well as one transfer. Of the 13-person roster, 10 are from the dairy state. Head coach Kevin Borseth is back at the helm of the Phoenix for his 21st season. He boasts an impressive 794 career wins including 482 coming from the Green Bay bench. He currently ranks sixth among active women’s basketball head coaches behind Wes Moore (NC State), Lisa Bluder (Iowa), Joe Foley (Little Rock), Geno Auriemma (UConn), and Tata VanDerveer (Stanford). Borseth has been coaching in the head coaching capacity for 36 years which is tied for the second fewest years among those active head coaches that top the charts.
The Phoenix graduate their leading points-getter from a year ago, but return the next seven scorers. On top of the returners, the Phoenix bring in graduate transfer Natalie Anderson from IUPUI. The fourth-best scorer for the Jaguars, Anderson totaled 282 points in her 30-game season, starting all 30.
The game can be watched on ESPN+ and can be listened to on the Panther Sports Radio Network.
