Last year, Arcadia University transformed a basketball gymnasium on campus into the home of its newest athletic programs: men’s and women’s wrestling.
“Compared to most wrestling rooms, we have a very open facility,” men’s coach David Stevens said. “We have three full-size wrestling mats and a turf field. We have treadmills, standalone bikes, and a weight room. [Arcadia] did a really good job of supporting us.”
As the facility was under construction, women’s coach Michael Childs gave prospective members of his 11-athlete squad an up-close look at the progress.
“I took [recruits] through a construction site with our facility that was being built,” Childs said. “There were certain days that they had to wear hard hats when they went through the building. I could show them pictures on my phone, and the education piece kind of sold itself. … The more difficult part was selling them a vision for the program.”
“Wrestling is very popular in the state of Pennsylvania and has very passionate fans, but countrywide, it is still a niche sport,” Childs said. “So introducing that to the Arcadia community in general and the administration, it’s been a growing year for us.”
Focus on ‘family’
The men’s roster features 32 wrestlers, primarily freshmen. The team leadership comes from a group of older wrestlers who entered the season nationally ranked.
Senior Caden Frost was ranked No. 15 in the 149-pound weight class, graduate student Logan Flynn (285) was No. 6, and senior Jacob Blair (133) was No. 8.
Blair and Flynn followed Stevens, their former assistant coach, to Arcadia from Delaware Valley University, while Frost transferred from New England College.
“It’s a lot of leading by example,” Blair said. “We’re trying to build something here with longevity and make an impact not only this year, but also down the road. We’re trying to create good team camaraderie and spirit because this is something none of us have ever experienced. We’ve never wrestled on a team with 25 freshmen.”
Arcadia wrestling is in its first season.
The Knights (1-3) secured their first team win on Nov. 8 over Eastern, 27-20.
Stevens believes the young roster will grow significantly over the course of the season, which begins in November and culminates with the NCAA championships in March.
“We tell every recruit that if you join this team, you become part of a family,” Stevens said. “We haven’t had the early success that we expected or that we wanted. But I think that’s what a family does, is that even through the hardships, we don’t give up on each other. We truly believe that we’re going to do something special here in our first year.”
The three leaders went undefeated in Arcadia’s most recent competition at Misericordia University.
“We talked about how you either have to buy in now or hop off,” Blair said. “But the fire under these guys is that they truly want to be here and want to be college wrestlers. They know it’s going to take hard work, because it’s a grueling sport, both mentally and physically.”
While the Arcadia women’s team (0-2) is a MAC member, there are fewer than 100 NCAA women’s wrestling programs nationwide. The limited number means that all programs, regardless of division, will vie for the same national championship.
In addition to helping freshmen adjust to the rigors of college athletics, Childs must also prepare his team to face some of the country’s top wrestlers.
“I think that the biggest challenge for us is bringing our student-athletes along to understand what this commitment is,” Childs said. “It’s not just your morning lifts and your daily practices. It’s a lifestyle. We’ll potentially be seeing world team members in competitions, All-Americans, and Olympians. So it’s really exciting, and it’s really challenging.”
Taylor McCue, a junior, is the only non-freshman on the Arcadia women’s wrestling roster.
Junior Taylor McCue is the only non-freshman on the women’s roster. From goal-setting meetings to decorating the locker room before competitions, the team is establishing its identity.
“The best thing that I can do for the success and growth of this program is to surround it with good people, and that’s what I’m trying to do,” Childs said. “We had our first tri-meet a couple weeks ago on our floor. After our event, we had a parent social, and over a hundred people were there. It was pretty cool to see.”
Freshman Molly Lubenow (right) in action for Arcadia.
A sport on the rise
Arcadia’s addition of a women’s wrestling program follows the rapid expansion of the sport nationwide. According to the NCAA, 17 schools began offering women’s wrestling programs in 2024-25 alongside its promotion to a championship sport.
The inaugural NCAA women’s wrestling championship will take place this spring.
Both Arcadia programs see themselves as leading the growth of wrestling. They also aim to bring national attention to the small university through success in Division III.
“Why I’m grateful to be at Arcadia is the support they give us,” Stevens said. “High school and even college programs are usually focused on other sports that more people are familiar with. But here at Arcadia, we feel like they’re really investing in us and giving us a great opportunity. This is a place that I want to continue to grow.”
The Temple women’s basketball program had not taken a trip outside the United States since 2019, when it competed in the Cancun Challenge in Mexico.
Coach Diane Richardson wanted to take a similar trip with her team this season, and this time the Owls are set to land in the Bahamas for the Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship.
Temple will play No. 20 Michigan State at 6:30 p.m. Friday, then Clemson or Western Carolina on Sunday.
The trip will give the Owls a chance to bond and experience a foreign country, Richardson said, while also continuing to gain experience against difficult competition in preparation for American Conference play.
“Not only is it a competitive environment with the sports, but they get to see the culture and all of that other stuff,” she said. “We’ll do some cultural things while we’re over there, too.”
Temple’s Tristen Taylor drives against Villanova’s MD Ntambue during Saturday’s game.
When the Owls head to the islands Wednesday, they’ll have a special guest with them.
New York Liberty forward Jonquel Jones is a Bahamas native and Richardson’s adopted daughter. Jones will be with the Temple players for most of the trip to help show them the culture.
The Owls have competed in multiteam events in the last two years. They went to Tempe, Ariz., for the Briann January Classic in 2023 and Berkeley, Calif., for the Raising The B.A.R Invitational last season. However, this event will be a different experience, Richardson said.
“They’re going to swim with the dolphins and maybe some yoga with the flamingos,” she said. “So we’ll do some nice cultural things. Take up a lot of the different Bahamian meals … and meet some of the townspeople. It’ll be a great experience.”
The Spartans are unbeaten through six games and have scored at least 90 points in each game. Michigan State also will be the fourth team the Owls face this year that made the NCAA Tournament last season.
Savannah Curry and Temple lost big to Kelsey Jones and Villanova on Saturday.
Depending on the results of the first round of games, Temple then will face Clemson or Western Carolina. The Tigers had a losing record last season but are 4-2 so far. The Catamounts entered Tuesday with a 2-4 record.
“It’s important for us to be challenged early, so that we’re used to that,” Richardson said. “And then we’re resilient and can fight through some things because we’ll be challenged by some Top 25 teams. And when we get to conference play, it won’t be a heavy lift because we’ll have been through it already.”
NEW YORK — Maggie Doogan turned and launched a three-pointer from the top of the key, then yelled, “What?” when the ball splashed through the net to give Richmond a 13-point lead at Columbia last week. The former Cardinal O’Hara star grinned when she sank another deep shot to continue her team’s fourth-quarter surge.
After a cold shooting start, Doogan was Richmond’s leading scorer (16 points) and added nine rebounds, four assists, and three blocks in a key early-season matchup between mid-major programs that won NCAA Tournament games in March. And when a reporter in the postgame news conference suggested she had struggled offensively in the 77-67 road victory, coach Aaron Roussell playfully responded with, “Tough ‘evals,’ man.”
“I think it’s a pretty good stat line, with all due respect,” Roussell said. “ … I’ll take those ‘off’ nights from her.”
That illustrates the heightened expectations for Doogan, the reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and perhaps the best mid-major player in women’s college basketball. The 6-foot-2 do-everything forward is averaging 23.1 points, 10.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.4 blocks through the Spiders’ first seven games. That includes a monster performance in last week’s 72-57 victory over Temple, when she racked up 31 points, 14 rebounds, and nine assists.
Her ascent has coincided with Richmond’s, which last season won a second consecutive A-10 regular-season title and its first March Madness game in program history. The 5-2 Spiders, whose only losses so far are to No. 4 Texas and No. 8 TCU, were ranked in the preseason Associated Press top 25 poll and are receiving votes now.
Doogan acknowledges building this legacy is “not at all” what she envisioned when she signed with Richmond. But Roussell calls her a “perfect model” for player development, with the versatility to anchor the Spiders’ read-and-react offensive system. In this new era of college athletics, Doogan also made an increasingly rare decision to not entertain NIL opportunities from power-conference programs and stay at Richmond for her final season.
Richmond’s Maggie Doogan dives for a loose ball in a 2023 game against Villanova.
Also fueling Doogan’s rise? Her on-court diligence and quest for basketball intel. That sets the standard for everybody in the Spiders’ program — including its coach.
“You can’t fake anything with her,” Roussell said in a telephone interview last week. “You can’t be a teammate and not work hard around her. You can’t be her coach and not invest in her and not put the time in with the film. Because she’s going to have questions, and you need to be able to answer those.
“That’s probably been different for me coaching her than maybe any other kid that I’ve ever coached.”
Spiders?
When Doogan was a sophomore in high school, her mother, Chrissie, gave her a Richmond T-shirt as an Easter present.
“Mom, I’m not going to a school where Spiders are the mascot,” Maggie jokingly retorted.
But the Doogan family, based in Broomall, already had a connection to the Richmond coaching staff. Assistant Jeanine Radice, then at Marist, had recruited Chrissie (née Donahue) before she became La Salle’s second all-time leading scorer and member of the school’s athletics Hall of Fame. Then they stayed in touch as Chrissie entered coaching at La Salle, Cornell, and Cardinal O’Hara, where she currently is the school’s athletic director.
So Mom initially sent Maggie’s film, which highlighted her basketball IQ, to Radice. Maggie later demonstrated her outstanding shooting at one of Richmond’s camps, Roussell said. And the coach recognized untapped potential.
Maggie, meanwhile, was interested in branching out from the Philly area but remaining within a reasonable driving distance. She wanted strong academics and the opportunity to play right away. And while visiting Richmond’s campus, she fell in love with the “gorgeous” red-brick buildings.
“It was an easy choice once I really looked into it,” she said.
Cardinal O’Hara’s Maggie Doogan holds the the championship plaque as she celebrates with teammates after beating Archbishop Carroll for the Catholic League title in 2022.
Chrissie wondered whether Maggie’s lanky frame would be strong enough when she entered college. Roussell, though, deliberately took her early development slowly, because the coach “really wanted to make her earn” playing time. A broken hand kept Doogan sidelined for about five weeks, forcing her to step back and observe and pick coaches’ brains from the bench.
“I don’t know if they put something magic in my hand,” Doogan said, “but I was just kind of a different player and took that big leap. That kind of just gave me more confidence at the collegiate level.”
Her breakout game fittingly came in a nationally televised overtime victory over St. Joseph’s. Roussell called her “unguardable” as she totaled 28 points, six rebounds, five assists, three blocks, and two steals. By her sophomore season, she was the Spiders’ leading scorer for a team that won 29 games and the first A-10 championship in program history.
In Roussell’s positionless system, Doogan could be viewed as a post player with excellent perimeter shooting and playmaking skills — or a wing who can make an impact inside on both ends of the floor. She not only impressed with her commitment to the weight room and on-court work, but with her film study and tactical aptitude.
Roussell jokingly calls it “stressful” to coach Doogan because of the information she constantly demands. She is not afraid to approach her coach during a shootaround and respectfully ask why they have chosen a specific strategy against an opponent. And the Spiders have changed elements of game plans — before or during a matchup — because of something Doogan observed.
Roussell already says he hopes his “retirement job” is as an assistant coach on Doogan’s future staff.
“The level and the layers of which she thinks about the game is already like a coach,” Russell said. “ … I never want her to be bashful or not tell me what she’s feeling during a game or seeing during a game.”
Those qualities propelled Doogan’s numbers to jump again as a junior, to 17 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. She shot 55.5% from the floor, including 40.6% from beyond the arc. She helped Richmond win a second consecutive regular-season A-10 title, and became the program’s first conference player of the year since 1990.
But after a St. Joe’s buzzer-beater upset Richmond in last season’s A-10 tournament — a game during which Doogan took just five shots and scored five points — she and Roussell had “frank conversations” about what the Spiders consistently needed from her. Doogan went home for spring break and “didn’t speak for three days. … She was miserable,” Chrissie said.
Roussell believes that gave Doogan an extra dose of motivation for a monster NCAA Tournament, after Richmond earned a No. 8 seed in an at-large berth.
She racked up 30 points on 5-of-8 shooting from three-point range, along with 15 rebounds and six assists, in a dominant 74-49 victory over ninth-seeded Georgia Tech. She totaled another 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting, seven assists, and six rebounds in an 84-67 loss to top-seeded UCLA, which advanced to the Final Four.
“I had a lot of pride. A lot of pride,” Doogan said of her team’s March Madness run. “ … Once you kind of step back, and a couple weeks later, I was like, ‘Wow, we really did that.’”
Richmond forward Maggie Doogan toward the basket as Georgia Tech guard Kara Dunn defends during last season’s NCAA Tournament.
Still, “literally the second we got back” from the NCAA Tournament, Roussell said, he and Doogan needed to have another honest discussion about her plans for the 2025-26 season. That is the reality in this transfer-portal era, because mid-major players regularly leave for power-conference programs that can offer more lucrative NIL deals.
Chrissie acknowledges she “got some calls on the side” to gauge Maggie’s interest in exploring options. She had to ask her daughter, “Would you leave for any certain amount?” Though Roussell received no indication from the family that he should be worried, he added, “I’m no dummy. I know the pursuers were out there.”
But Maggie and Roussell were aligned on how special this season could be for the Spiders — and that she wanted to finish her college career where it started.
“Not everybody would have made the decision that she did,” Roussell said. “There was a lot of loyalty involved. Now, do I think this was a great fit for her and this was the right answer? Yeah. But she left money on the table by coming back here, and that’s not something every 21-year-old is doing.”
Added Doogan: “Honestly, it’s home. And I wouldn’t want to spend my last year anywhere else.”
After Richmond’s win at Columbia, Chrissie sent Maggie a text about the two turnovers she committed during the game’s final minute.
“Wow, thanks for the love,” Maggie sarcastically responded.
Consider that evidence that the coach-player aspect of this close mother-daughter bond has never fully dissipated. Neither have other characteristics Maggie says she acquired while growing up as a Philly basketball kid. She immediately highlighted her toughness, that “I don’t really like to take a lot of B.S. from people, and I think I get that from back home.” She also credits her time at O’Hara with fostering her vocal leadership, which was on display while speaking up during timeouts throughout Richmond’s win at Columbia.
“I’m trying to calm everybody down, which hopefully works,” she said after that game. “I kind of know what [Roussell is] thinking, and I’m good at talking with everybody else. I think it’s kind of why I’m on the floor.”
She also is navigating life as a player who, before the season, was ranked among ESPN’s top 25 returners in the country.
She acknowledged after the Columbia game that she felt more defensive “crowding” while in the paint and a greater focus on wherever she was on the floor. Roussell is pleased that Doogan is executing on individual focuses, like better finishing, drawing fouls around the rim, and improving as a playmaker and rebounder. Being invited to last summer’s Team USA’s Women’s AmeriCup team trials, where she competed alongside some of college basketball’s best players, also boosted her confidence, Roussell said.
“She has not hit her apex yet,” Roussell said. “There is really good basketball in her future that will be better than what she is now.”
Yet the Doogan family is embracing Maggie’s final college season, which Chrissie compares to the ending of a book.
A group in Richmond gear swarmed Maggie for hugs following the Columbia win, then posed together for a photo op. Her grandparents make the four-hour drive to Richmond for nearly every home game. And whenever Chrissie visits, she notices children wearing No. 44 jerseys with “Doogan” on the back.
“As a parent, you’re like, ‘Wow, this kid,’” Chrissie said. “People all over Richmond know her.”
Richmond’s Maggie Doogan looks on after shooting as Georgia Tech center Ariadna Termis watches.
That’s the impact of Doogan becoming a perfect model of development and versatility.
And the player who stayed at her mid-major school through her entire career.
And the person who continues to set the standard for her program’s historic rise.
“It’s going to be awful whenever she takes off that jersey,” Chrissie said of Maggie. “I know there will be tears shed. But she’s got so much to be proud of, and so much to be excited for this season.
“We’re just trying to take it one game at a time, one practice at a time, and enjoy the ride.”
In a rematch of last year’s Big 5 Classic championship game, Villanova soundly defeated Temple, 88-58, at the Finneran Pavilion on Saturday night.
The Wildcats secured revenge over the Owls after falling in a competitive 76-62 matchup on Dec. 7, 2024.
Five Villanova players scored in double digits in its highest-scoring game of the season. Senior guard Ryanne Allen, who scored 19 points, and graduate forward Denae Carter, who recorded 17 points and five steals, each marked career highs in scoring.
“That was a tough loss last year,” Allen said. “This week in practice, we were reminding the people that weren’t here about that loss, and how we wanted to get that back. So that was a huge impetus for us, especially losing on our home floor. We didn’t want it to happen again, so it was nice to get that win back for us.”
Villanova’s Annie Welde brings the ball upcourt against Temple on Saturday.
Junior guard Tristen Taylor led Temple with 15 points and four assists. Junior forward Jaleesa Molina recorded a game-high nine rebounds. Temple outrebounded Villanova, 34-29.
With the loss, Temple split its two Big 5 “pod” matchups leading up to the Big 5 Classic triple-header on Dec. 7. The Owls defeated La Salle, 75-54, on Nov. 14.
Villanova’s second-quarter surge
Freshman guard Jasmine Bascoe brought early energy for Villanova from the backcourt, scoring eight points and notching three steals in the opening 10 minutes. As the clock expired to end the first quarter, Bascoe intercepted a Temple pass and drove to the basket to tie the score at 13.
The Wildcats carried the momentum into the second quarter, going on an 8-0 run over just 57 seconds. A pair of three-pointers from senior guard Allen and freshman guard Kennedy Henry, along with a layup from junior forward Brynn McCurry, allowed Villanova to take a 21-15 lead and force Temple to call a timeout.
“The second quarter really punched us, and we didn’t respond well enough, especially because [Villanova] got a lot of points in transition,” Temple coach Diane Richardson said.
The Wildcats surged from there, going on an 18-1 run over 4 minutes, 31 seconds.
Meanwhile, Temple faltered, shooting just 5-for-14 from the field while conceding six turnovers in the second quarter.
Temple’s Savannah Curry drives against Villanova’s Kelsey Joens.
Allen’s career night
Allen drained her fourth three-pointer of the night to send the Wildcats into halftime with a 20-point lead. She finished the night shooting 7-for-8 from the field and 5-for-6 from three. She also notched a career high of six assists.
The Wildcats dominated the second half, leading by 20 points or more throughout the third and fourth quarters. Villanova was especially successful in transition, gaining 26 points on the fastbreak in contrast to Temple’s six across the game.
“What I was most pleased with was the assists,” Villanova coach Denise Dillon said. “When you have 27 assists on 35 field goals, that’s good team basketball. That’s impressive.”
Next up
Villanova will visit La Salle on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Temple will host Michigan State on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Villanova will host the 2025 Big 5 Classic triple-header at the Finneran Pavilion on Sunday, Dec. 7.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Rose Lavelle scored in the 80th minute and the eighth-seeded Gotham FC beat the Washington Spirit 1-0 on Saturday night to win their second National Women’s Soccer League championship.
Second-half substitute Bruninha drove into the box on the left wing and sent the ball across to Lavelle, whose left-footed shot sailed past Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury into the bottom corner of the net.
“It was maybe the one moment I had in the game to step up,” Lavelle said. ”I keep saying Bruninha did the heavy lifting on that.”
It is the first NWSL championship title for Lavelle, who had scored in the 2023 final when she was playing for the Seattle Reign against Gotham in a 2-1 loss.
“This was such a roller coaster of a season for us. We had injuries. We had a really daunting schedule with the amount of games that we were playing, the travel. I think just like the way that every single individual stepped up in the moments, did what they were asked to, was so huge,” Lavelle said. “I think you learn the most about yourself in the toughest moments. And so, I think what we faced throughout the season really helped set us up.”
After a strong opening 10 minutes of the match for Gotham, with three shots from Jaedyn Shaw, the final began to mature into a tense affair.
There were few chances and the best of the first half came when Spirit midfielder Hal Hershfelt perfectly timed a slide tackle and cleaned out Midge Purce with the follow through.
Not long after the half, Trinity Rodman was brought off the Spirit bench for Sofia Cantore, bringing the crowd to its feet. The U.S. women’s national team star was on limited minutes after suffering a knee sprain in October.
Saturday’s game might have been Trinity Rodman’s last for the Spirit.
Even with the introduction of Rodman, the Spirit continued to struggle to create chances. They had marginally more control of the ball, 53%, but were outshot by Gotham 12-6 and finished the game without a single shot on target. Rodman had zero shots and zero chances created.
“As much as I don’t want to admit it, I still don’t feel like I was my full self tonight, which sucks, because I feel like it’s the second year I’ve gone into a final not feeling like myself,” Rodman said.
The second-seeded Spirit (14-6-8) suffered a second consecutive defeat in the NWSL final, having lost last year to the Orlando Pride in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Spirit reached this year’s final by overcoming Racing Louisville 3-1 in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals and then beating the Portland Thorns 2-0 in the semifinals.
Gotham’s trophy celebration.
Gotham (11-8-9) had defied the odds to make the final, going on the road twice to defeat the top-seeded Kansas City Current 2-1 in the quarterfinal and the defending champions the Pride, 1-0.
Gotham is the first eighth-seed to win the NWSL Championship. In 2023, when there were only six playoff spots, Gotham became the first sixth seed to lift the trophy.
Coach Juan Carlos Amoros has seven NWSL playoff wins in his career and two championships.
Pitcher and outfielder Kelsie Whitmore is returning to familiar surroundings after being selected by San Francisco with the first pick in the inaugural Women’s Pro Baseball League draft on Thursday night.
Mo’ne Davis, meantime, had to wait until the 10th pick before being selected by Los Angeles. The 24-year-old Davis, who’s from Philadelphia, competed at the 2014 Little League World Series at age 13 and became the first girl to win a game and pitch a shutout.
Whitmore is from San Diego and made her professional debut in the Bay Area with a coed team, the Sonoma Stompers, in 2016. The 27-year-old has won two silver medals representing the United States at the Women’s Baseball World Cup and won gold at the 2015 Pan-Am Games in Toronto.
“You ask a 6-year-old version of me about this opportunity happening right now, she would, one, probably not believe you, but, two, just be so, so, so, so excited for it,” said Whitmore, who in 2022 signed with the Staten Island FerryHawks, becoming the first woman to compete in pro baseball’s Atlantic League. She played for the Savannah Bananas this season.
Whitmore was among 120 players selected in the six-round draft that also included teams representing New York and Boston.
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred opened the draft by congratulating the WPBL for its launch. The league is scheduled to begin play on Aug. 1.
Each team made five picks per round, with the order of selection determined by a random draw. Teams will cut their 30-player rosters to 15 for the start of the season.
Mo’ne Davis slides to third base during the first day of tryouts for the Women’s Professional Baseball League on Aug. 25.
Japan’s Ayami Sato went No. 2 to Los Angeles. The 35-year-old right-hander is a five-time World Cup winner and the only player to earn three tournament MVP honors.
New York selected U.S. infielder Kylee Lahners with the third pick. Boston chose South Korean catcher Hyeonah Kim at No. 4.
The startup league had a four-day tryout camp in Washington this summer with more than 600 hopefuls on hand.
The league is scheduled to play all of its games at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springville, Illinois. Teams will be based there over a seven-week season, split up into a four-week regular season, a week for all-star activities and a two-week playoff.
The WPBL was co-founded by Justine Siegal, who became the first woman to coach for an MLB team with the Oakland Athletics in 2015. It will be the first pro baseball league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — immortalized in the film “A League of Their Own” — dissolved in 1954.
Shayla Smith mingled on the Hagan Arena court Sunday afternoon, posing for a photo with St. Joseph’s guard Kaylinn Bethea.
The brief reunion with a former Philly Rise EYBL teammate was one reason Smith said it felt like “a breath of fresh air” to be back in her hometown. It was her first trip as a Penn State player, after becoming the city’s all-time scoring leader for high school boys’ and girls’ basketball last spring.
“It definitely feels good to be back here,” Smith told The Inquirer. “ … Just coming back home, seeing everybody, all my people.”
An undisclosed injury kept Smith from playing in the Nittany Lions’ 89-77 victory over St Joe’s. Yet the former Audenried superstar is embracing the beginning of her college career, and coach Carolyn Kieger expects Smith to “drastically” help a 4-0 Penn State this season.
“I wish she was 100% to play in her hometown today,” Kieger said postgame. “ … I’ve been really impressed with her work ethic and how she’s kind of been just soaking up learning and growing.
“It’s an unfortunate injury there, but she’ll be back healthy and ready to rock here in no time.”
Smith has played 19 total minutes during two of Penn State’s first four games, going 3-of-7 from the floor for six points along with four rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block.
But the 5-foot-9 freshman guard believes she has already improved since arriving on campus for summer workouts. Physically, Smith feels stronger and faster. Mentally, she feels more decisive, a necessity in Kieger’s “0.5” offensive system that requires players to begin to shoot, pass, or dribble in less than a second.
Penn State freshman Shayla Smith (center) has played 19 total minutes this season.
Smith also has concentrated on being a more vocal teammate, a noticeable emphasis while she watched Sunday’s game from the bench. She emphatically clapped when the Nittany Lions surrendered a layup on their opening possession, clearly aiming to motivate those on the floor. She stood up, lifted three fingers, and hollered “Yeah!” when Vitória Santana buried a three-pointer that gave Penn State an 86-74 lead with 1 minute, 37 seconds remaining. Smith applauded as her team dribbled out the final seconds of a game often played at a frenetic pace.
Kieger said she envisions utilizing Smith’s frame and skills on both ends of the floor. She is an obvious three-level scorer who can shoot from beyond the arc and muscle her way inside. Those attributes fueled a decorated high school career in which she amassed a record-breaking 2,691 career points and averaged 27.5 points as a senior. Smith also has the capability to guard multiple positions, Kieger said.
“I’m going to bring my physicality as a guard,” Smith said. “Just my attack mindset. Just embracing my role. Trying to be the best at what they need me to do. … When I get my chances, just do what I can do. Play my game when I get the chance.”
Heading to Happy Valley also has meant adapting to college life. Though Smith quipped that she enjoys “just being able to do whatever I want and nobody saying anything,” these early months have been a test in time management. A diligent gym rat, Smith has been learning when to squeeze her individual workout time in between classes, practices, and other team obligations such as alumni events.
“There’s always something to do,” Smith said. “ … I’ve just got to find the time to work on my craft and still be on top of everything else.”
While recovering from this injury, Smith said she has been trying to make the best of observing how the game unfolds from a pulled-back perspective. That was a rarity when the offense flowed through her as a record-breaking high school player, who was a three-time All-State honoree and anchored Audenried’s three-peat as Public League champions.
Shayla Smith, the former Audenried standout, did not play in Penn State’s win over St. Joseph’s on Sunday because of an injury.
And spending Sunday’s return to Philly on the bench has made her “eager” to truly get her college career underway.
“I just want to be a great teammate [and] master my role,” Smith said. “Bring my physicality. Bring everything that I can. I want to contribute, and help the team make it to the NCAA Tournament and Big Ten championship.”
NEW YORK — As a group of Columbia women’s basketball players struggled to break a press defense and advance the ball up the court, Megan Griffith’s voice rang through the gym.
“I need more active participation with your voice!” the coach said. “Can you please get back to playing like us?”
That is one of the go-to phrases that Griffith, a King of Prussia native, reinforces during this October preseason practice. They are all designed to “make things sticky” and keep the team process-focused, Griffith said.
“How you do anything, is how you do everything,” Griffith and standout guard Perri Page will both rattle off within the same hour.
Those callbacks have fueled a remarkable turnaround as Griffith enters her 10th season as the head coach at her alma mater.
Columbia was one of women’s college basketball’s worst programs for decades before clinching at least a share of three consecutive Ivy League regular-season championships and winning its first NCAA Tournament game in school history last season.
And it received an at-large bid to the Big Dance in each of the past two seasons, typically unheard of for Ivy League programs. The Lions are 2-0 to begin the 2025-26 season, heading into a marquee home opener against reigning Atlantic 10 regular-season champion Richmond Saturday night.
Griffith, a finalist last season for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year award, has displayed her Philly roots while making breakthrough after breakthrough during this rebuild.
There’s the influence of her high school coach, Villa Maria Academy’s Kathy McCartney, whose motivational style Griffith describes in a way that her current players now talk about her. And her childhood being raised by a father from Delaware County and a mother who immigrated from Hong Kong, before they met at Villanova. The emphasis on running a high-powered offensive system spearheaded by dynamic guard play? A no-brainer for a 40-year-old who grew up watching the Allen Iverson Sixers era.
That culture has already elevated Columbia to historic heights, and a stability Griffith and players now strive to protect. Now, the coach has the Lions believing they can — again — become the best team in program history.
“She’s a force,” Page said. “Honestly, do not mess with her. She is going to go out and get whatever she wants. … I can’t see myself playing for any other coach in the country.”
‘A determined little bugger’
Diane and Bob Griffith still are in awe when they watch their daughter coach, or when she speaks during news conferences. She actually was a shy kid in everyday life, taking hold of Dad’s pant leg whenever the family was out in public.
But as soon as there were competitive stakes, Megan turned into “a determined little bugger,” Bob said. Diane remembers a T-ball game when a young Megan rounded third base, and the umpire told Bob, who coached Megan’s youth sports teams, that “this kid can slide better than most adult men can.”
“Once that light turned on or that game clock started, she was tenacious, even as a small kid,” Bob said. “ … When you look back on it, she was probably one of the most aggressive kids out there on the court.”
Megan concedes today that she probably should have pursued soccer (“Look at me. I’m 5-5,” she quips). But she gravitated toward the intimacy of smaller basketball rosters and how the game never stops moving.
Neither did she, because she was fast. When Griffith first arrived at Villa Maria, McCartney remembers the teenage point guard could not always control her dribble in transition … because she literally outran the ball.
King of Prussia native Megan Griffith played her high school ball at Villa Maria Academy.
So McCartney told a steely eyed Griffith that she was not ready to play on the varsity team as a freshman. She needed to learn how to mold those natural athletic gifts into a ballhandler who could anticipate the defense’s next move. Griffith clocked that, while being coached by a woman for the first time, she was receiving a similar combination of intensity and care that her father provided in those settings.
“When I started getting [that tough love] from somebody else, it was like, ‘Oh, this is also how other people do this,’” Griffith said. “And it just really resonated with me. … That allowed me to really gain the confidence as a young woman, to then take that next step in my career and play college.”
By her senior high school season, Griffith was the point guard and defensive menace for a team that won its first 21 games. She had chosen to play for Columbia, which does not offer athletic scholarships, over an offer from LIU-Brooklyn.
And the hug McCartney and Griffith shared as she walked off the court for the final time as a high schooler has “stuck with me for years,” the coach said.
“It kind of solidified in my head the difference a coach can make,” McCartney said. “And I think — I hope — it has helped her in some way. I remember whispering in her ear, ‘You’ve got big things ahead of you, girl.’”
A clipping from the Philadelphia Inquirer sports section of February 2, 2003, showing Megan Griffith driving to the basket for Villa Maria Academy high school. Griffith is now the head women’s basketball coach at Columbia University.
‘I can go prove everybody wrong’
Columbia’s program was in a tumultuous state during Griffith’s playing career, from 2003 to 2007. She had four coaches in four seasons. The Lions’ record during that span was 38-70.
But that is where Griffith learned how to “stack days,” not just with her on-court training but in daily habits such as nutrition and sleep. Bob watched his daughter morph from a “very predictable” freshman who was “trying to please her coach too much,” to a 1,000-point scorer and two-time all-Ivy League selection.
“I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve had it the complete wrong way,’” Megan said. “I was so focused on the results all the time. Starting. Trying to come in as a freshman and change the program. I was like, ‘Wow, if I can just focus on what I can control …’”
Megan Griffith was an 1,000-point scorer at Columbia. The King of Prussia native now coaches her alma mater.
She also had an Ivy League education and a job lined up at Lincoln Financial in Philly upon graduating with an economics degree. She turned that offer down to continue playing overseas in Finland and then the Netherlands.
Griffith called that experience “transformational.” She leaned into exploring her new surroundings and connecting with her local teammates. An assistant coach began involving her in game-planning and strategizing, which she said “channeled my competitive energy very differently.” She learned enough Dutch to help coach kids. When she came home during off-seasons, she held youth skills clinics.
“I could see just how these kids just looked up to her,” Diane said. “ … I think that was probably the first glimpse of her maybe, possibly becoming a coach.”
When Megan no longer found as much satisfaction in that daily grind, she knew it was time to pivot from playing. She was hired as the director of basketball operations at Princeton, and was intrigued by then-coach Courtney Banghart, who led the program to its first Ivy League title.
Banghart, now the coach at 11th-ranked North Carolina, quickly made Griffith the Tigers’ recruiting coordinator. Griffith was hesitant at first, instead wanting more tactical responsibilities. But she was organized and a people person.
“What I learned there is that, actually, the most important thing is relationships,” Griffith said. “You have to know things and be smart. But at the end of the day, everybody can learn an offense. But what do you do with talent? How do you get talent? How do you get people that are bought into a common language, and an ethos, and a culture?”
In 2016, Columbia’s head-coaching job came open. Griffith, then 30, went to athletic director Peter Pilling with a detailed plan on how she would run her alma mater. And she thought back to conversation in the car with her father, while she was still playing overseas.
“[I said], ‘Dad, I feel I’m meant for something, like, big and different,’” she said. “I didn’t know what that meant at that time. So when this opportunity came up it was like, ‘Wow, I can go prove everybody wrong.’
“And I love that. I love the underdog. That’s who I am at my core.”
Megan Griffith played professional basketball in Finland.
‘It’s why you do it’
Tyler Cordell was “a little intimidated” the first time she spoke to Griffith. While interviewing for a job as Princeton’s director of basketball operations when Griffith was promoted to assistant coach, Cordell left the phone conversation thinking, “I don’t know if I’m smart enough to follow up in her footsteps.”
Now, Griffith and Cordell have worked together for 14 years. Cordell said it was a “no-brainer” to join Griffith’s staff at Columbia. Griffith calls Cordell an example of the “builders” the program needed.
“You start with the people,” Griffith said.
That meant thorough — and unconventional — recruiting.
The coaching staff went into southern states, such as Florida and Georgia. And internationally, to Spain and Australia. Today, nine players on Columbia’s 2025-26 roster are from outside the United States.
And there was perhaps nobody better to pitch Columbia than Griffith, who experienced the top-tier academics, limited athletic resources, and basketball struggles firsthand.
“It’s not like we’re in the same sandbox as a lot of schools,” Griffith said. ” … But we’ve never been.”
Griffith needed to power through the early on-court woes as a coach, including back-to-back eight-win seasons from 2017 to 2019 that left Diane worried about Megan’s health. Still, accolades began to surface. Their first victories over programs from the Atlantic Coast Conference (Boston College) and Big East (Providence). Their first Ivy League Rookie of the Year in Sienna Durr. The commitments of Abbey Hsu and Kaitlyn Davis, who became “young, hungry freshmen” and, eventually, conference champions and WNBA draft picks.
Those players could emulate an on-court style — with athletic, guard-heavy rosters that could pressure defensively and get out in transition — that led to sustained success for other mid-majors. It evolved into a system that, from 2022 to 2025, averaged more than 70 points per game.
King of Prussia native Megan Griffith has built Columbia women’s basketball into an Ivy League power.
Griffith, meanwhile, strives to make people feel important, even when demands are high. She will get on a player’s case during practice, but then help them make their first resumé or ask about their dog. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when Columbia’s 2020-21 season was canceled, the staff created a space for players to talk. Page actually took her recruiting “visit” on Zoom and was blown away by the staff’s energy and attention to detail in less-than-ideal circumstances.
“That’s what made me say, ‘Wow, they put a lot of thought and effort into everything that they do,’” she said. “ … I was like, ‘If you can make this look good, imagine what it looks like on the court, too.’”
Once the Lions returned to to play, the avalanche of checkpoints continued.
A 2021 signature comeback win at Clemson? Check.
Qualifying for the four-team Ivy League tournament for the first time? Check.
Four consecutive 20-win seasons? Check.
Advancing to the WNIT quarterfinals in 2021, then the championship game the following season? Check.
First Ivy League regular-season titles, as co-champions in 2023 and 2024 and then as the outright winner last season? Check.
First NCAA tournament appearance in 2024, when they lost a tight First Four matchup against Vanderbilt? Check.
“That’s what’s been so cool about our journey,” Cordell said. “Because we haven’t skipped one step.”
The most recent: Last season’s NCAA First Four. The Lions at halftime flipped how they were guarding Washington’s post players, and rallied from 13 points down to win and advance to the round of 64.
“It was just the next thing we had to do in our journey,” Griffith said. “I feel like we manifested it, but at the same time, it was supposed to happen. …
“When the buzzer sounded, it’s why you do it. It’s why I’ve coached the last nine years — to be in that moment and be able to share that with my staff and this team.”
Columbia head coach Megan Griffith (right) celebrates with assistant coach Cy Lippold after beating Washington in a First Four game in last season’s NCAA Tournament.
‘Coach-led, player-fed’
Those back home also have relished in Griffith’s rise.
McCartney still texts Megan and her parents, and loves telling friends “that’s one of my kids” while watching Columbia play. Megan’s godmother, who lives in Australia, wakes up at 4 a.m. to tune in to games. Supporters are in the stands whenever Columbia plays Penn in Philly, where Griffith takes pride in those who knew her as a player recognizing similar qualities in her teams.
And Diane and Bob are regular visitors to campus. While watching a recent scrimmage, they noticed Megan being “really tough” on the freshmen. Up in the coach’s offices, a veteran told one of those first-year players, “She’s tough, but you have to listen to Coach. She knows what she’s talking about.”
“Yes, she yells at you a lot,” Diane said. “She screams in your face. You think she hates you. But she really does care about you, and she wants to make you a better player and person.”
Columbia women’s basketball coach and King of Prussia native Megan Griffith (left) high-fives her niece, Carmen, who calls her Titi.
Like during that October practice, when new assistant coach Kizmahr Grell needed to tell Griffith to take a deep breath. The Lions have a taller roster and fewer ballhandlers this season, forcing some tweaks to their on-court identity. That was particularly apparent with Page sitting out this practice, prompting a direct challenge from Griffith to be a better leader from the sideline.
“It just gets me so fired up, too,” Page said of those interactions. “ … I take it, like, this is my program. This is my baby. When she gives a task, I am ready to attack it, always. Because I want to do right for her, but I want to do right for this program, as well.”
Columbia coach Megan Griffith talks to her team at practice last season.
That’s an example of another Griffith callback: “Coach-led, player-fed.” It’s why a practice that began with harsh words ended with everybody gathering at midcourt for a calm circle, where players individually spoke up to encourage and hold each other accountable. They snapped in agreement of each player’s input. When Griffith asked who got better today, every player raised their hand.
Those mantras have become sticky, establishing Columbia’s foundational culture. They have fueled the Lions’ historic rise.
So what is the next breakthrough, with Griffith’s 10th season underway?
“That’s my big challenge right now, is just continue to teach when the expectations are higher — and self-imposed,” Griffith said. “Nobody here is like, ‘Hey, you need to win more.’ Everybody is like, ‘Look at everything you’ve done,’ but that’s just not who I am.
“I don’t just think we can continue to win Ivy League championships. I think we can make deep runs into March. As long as we keep getting the right people here, why couldn’t we go to the Elite Eight?”
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Olivia Moultrie scored two goals and the U.S. women’s national team bounced back against Portugal with a 3-1 victory on Sunday after honoring former goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.
The United States was coming off a 2-1 loss to Portugal in the first game of the international window on Thursday in Chester. It was Portugal’s first victory over the U.S. and just the third loss for the national team under coach Emma Hayes.
Moultrie scored just 45 seconds into the game to give the USWNT the early lead. Portugal leveled in the fifth minute on Jessica Silva’s header off a cross from Beatriz Fonseca.
Moultrie added her second in the 10th to put the Americans back in front. The 20-year-old has a pair of two-goal games in 10 international appearances.
Sam Coffey, who came into the game as a substitute in the 77th minute, put the game away with a goal in the 82nd. Coffey and Moultrie are teammates on the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League.
Hayes made eight changes to the starting lineup from the group she started on Thursday.
Before the match at Pratt & Whitney Stadium, the United States honored Naeher, a Connecticut native, who retired from the national team late last year after winning a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
Naeher was the starting goalkeeper for the U.S. team that won the Women’s World Cup in 2019 and the 2024 Olympics. She’s the only U.S. goalkeeper to earn a shutout in both a World Cup and an Olympic final.
Alyssa Naeher waves to the crowd in her home state during her retirement ceremony.
The team was without some of its star players. Trinity Rodman was nursing an MCL sprain in her right knee that she sustained Oct. 15 during a CONCACAF W Champions Cup match with her club team, the Washington Spirit.
Defender Naomi Girma remained sidelined with a calf injury that occurred before the start of Chelsea’s season in September.
Forward Lynn Biyendolo, who was left off the U.S. roster because of a knee injury, announced on Saturday that she and her husband are expecting their first child. Other prominent national team players who have taken maternity time off this year include Sophia Wilson and Mallory Swanson.
Hayes said that U.S. Soccer was developing more comprehensive “pre- and postpregnancy” protocols to be announced in the future.
The United States has one more match during the current international window, against New Zealand on Wednesday at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
When the Olympics come knocking, you drop everything to answer the door.
And by the time squash standouts Marina Stefanoni and Aly Abou Eleinen learned that their sport would be included in the Olympics for the first time in 2028, they already were a step ahead.
Stefanoni, the 25th-ranked women’s player in the world, moved to Philadelphia after graduating from Harvard last year to be closer to West Philadelphia’s Arlen Specter U.S. Squash Center — the home of the U.S. national squash team.
Before joining the pro ranks, ninth-ranked squash player Aly Abou Eleinen competed for Penn.
Eleinen is the 11th-ranked men’s player in the world. A 2022 Penn graduate, Eleinen moved to his native Egypt a year after graduating to train at the national squash center in Cairo.
This week, both competed at the U.S. Open Squash Championships in University City and are continuing to put in the hard work on the professional circuit in the lead-up to the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
“I am looking at it as ‘If I happen to make the Olympics, then I’ve probably achieved what I want to on the timeline that I want on the pro tour,’” Stefanoni said.
Added Eleinen: “[The Olympics] line up well with my [Professional Squash Association] World Tour goals. If I keep focusing on myself, keep focusing on my body, keep trying to rise up the rankings on the TSA World Tour, that’ll put me in a good position for the Olympics.”
Daunting tasks
Stefanoni is part of the Big Four of American women’s squash, along with No. 5 Olivia Weaver, No. 9 Amanda Sobhy, and Sobhy’s sister, Sabrina, who’s ranked 89th. The youngest of all four, Stefanoni feels a bond with her USA team members despite having less experience in the PSA.
What the other three have in experience, Stefanoni makes up for in youth — and fully expects to get her shot at Los Angeles come 2028.
“We are at very different stages of our career, which makes it extra interesting,” Stefanoni said. “… As you get deeper into your 30s every year, it’s massively more difficult to maintain that high level of squash.”
Aly Abou Eleinen returns the ball during the U.S. Open Squash Championships this week at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center.
Eleinen, having to earn his spot against an Egyptian field that holds seven of the top 20 men’s players in the world, knows that any chance of playing in the Olympics must come through dethroning the nation’s top talents, a plan made more difficult following recent ACL and MCL injuries that ended his 2024-25 season early.
With a burning need to get back on track, Eleinen knows there’s no better time than the present to begin improving.
“In Egypt, it is a bit more challenging than other countries,” he said. “But it is what it is. That’s the reality of the situation. And for me, yes, I’m competing with the guys that I’m training with, but that’s also helpful, because you get to raise the level, which also helps on the PSA World Tour.”
Love-hate relationship
Stefanoni calls Philly home, but it’s taken a while for her to come around.
“I hated Philly before coming here,” Stefanoni said. “I was like, ‘This city is the worst.’ Cities are just so hectic … but I’ve slowly been becoming a fan.”
As the youngest-ever winner of the under-19 U.S. Junior Squash Championship at 13 years old, Stefanoni has been a star in the making since before she could remember. But as she continues her rise, she hopes to enjoy the ride more often on her way to the top.
“Sometimes I need to take a step back and realize that this is actually a big deal, and what I’m doing is pretty cool,” Stefanoni said.
On the other hand, Eleinen fell in love with the city during his time at Penn, and he said he frequently misses the area.
“I still have family in Philly, and every year since graduating, I’ve been coming [back] to Philly over and over,” Eleinen said. “… Philly’s always had a special place in my heart.”
Despite his fondness for the city, his career and family come first.
With his parents, coaches, and fiancée in Cairo, the Egyptian star says that’s the best place for him to prepare for 2028.
“Cairo has been amazing for me,” Eleinen said. “I see myself staying in Cairo for a while. I’m getting married next summer, in July, which is just so exciting. We’re going to have our wedding in Cairo; we’re going to settle in Cairo. So for me, Cairo is the place to be right now.”
