The 2023-24 basketball season is right around the corner and the Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball program is eager to get back on the court. The team finished 16-14 last season and was 10-8 in GLIAC play ending their season in the GLIAC semifinals. Eight of the 11 players from last season are returning and the team picked up five more to have 13 on the roster this year.
Head coach Jenny Pruett enters her fifth season at the helm along with assistant coach Rob McDonald who's in his second year with the program. Leading the charge for the Cardinals is graduate student Jessica Massey along with two seniors in Victoria Stafford and Tyler Scheid. There are three juniors on the team with two of them being newcomers. Saniaa Walker returns, and Aleshia Jones comes from Iowa Western CC and Makayla Mau from Kirkwood CC. The most populated class for the team is the sophomore class. There are four of them and all are returners in Emma Dziezgowski, Lydia Meredith, Lauren Sollom, and Maggie Keinsley. Rounding out the roster are three incoming freshmen. Megan McCalla comes from Chelsea High School, Emma Riley from Fowler High School, and Mari Bink from Escanaba High School.
After two exhibition games, one of which against the University of Michigan, SVSU opens up non-conference play against their rivals from Midland, the Northwood Timberwolves. Saginaw Valley hosts the Timberwolves and then welcomes Findlay, Ashland, Pitt-Johnstown, and Cedarville before heading to Hillsdale. The first conference games start on Thursday, December 7 when SVSU heads to Michigan Tech and then to Northern Michigan two days later. The team will then get set for their winter break trips as they head to Kentucky to play Thomas More and then to Tennessee to play Trevecca Nazarene and Carson-Newman before ending non-conference play at Eastern Michigan to wrap up the 2023 calendar year.
Saginaw Valley placed seventh out of 10 teams in the GLIAC preseason poll. They acquired 37 points and sit just behind Parkside with 40. They lead Davenport with 22, Purdue Northwest with 19, and Lake Superior State with 16. The Cardinals have an exhibition game at home against Alma on Monday, October 30 at 6:00 PM and host their first match of the season with the Northwood rivalry game tipping off at 4:00 PM on Friday, November 10.
