The NCDA’s Women’s league has seen a boost in attention over the course of the last two seasons, and it’s unsurprising with how hard these women fight for their spotlight. This season, unfortunately, recruitment seems to be far more challenging than previous years, which forces teams to fall back on their vets as teams slowly shrink in size. But recruitment isn’t everything, so let’s see how these teams are doing coming out of summer break and learn who’s on the playing field for this season!
Michigan Region
Michigan State University
While MSU won nationals, they were hit the hardest in terms of graduating players. They had five women graduate from the team, most notably Allie Pohl and Paige Misner, both of which made it onto one of the All-American teams last season. This season, they will rely heavily on experienced players like Ava Stack and Makayla Paul with Makayla taking big steps to improve her game and impact on the court. While MSU is known for having high caliber players, this season will hopefully see good recruitment to fill the gaps on the court.
Ohio Region
Akron
Out of all the schools in the league, Akron probably has the greatest advantage with how many veteran players are returning this year. Unfortunately, much like many other teams this season, Akron is also struggling to find new players. With only one rookie so far, but the growth of their players has been profound over the last season. Not only are the younger players showing great improvement, like Sadie Hill, but even their more experienced vets are continuing to grow. Hopefully, the recruiting starts to pick up speed, but it’s clear from their roster that their team will have no trouble playing well in the meantime.
Kent
Kent has been on an upward trek since the 2024 season where they had a few ladies attend nationals. Last year, while still on the mixed team, they had three women attend with all three making it onto the All American teams and their rookie making it onto the Rookie All-American team! From what it sounds like, their recruitment was pretty good, and they now have five women on their roster, which would allow them to play in official matches for a change.
CSU
CSU has had participants in several events over the past few season, but they’ve yet to bring a full team to compete as their own. However, sources say they have a team of five waiting in the wings for their moment to shine. Over the past several seasons, the women who have attended from this school have been restricted to the mixed matches which doesn’t allow for much growth or strategy building, so it will be a refreshing change for the team to finally establish themselves among the other teams with their own plan of attack!
Cincinnati
The only appearance UC made last year was at nationals, which is a very impressive yet intimidating feat. Much like majority of the other women’s teams, UC is struggling to hold onto and gain members for this season, but we hope to see any of their returners and rookies attend a few more events prior to nationals.
Southern Region
Norther Kentucky University
The end of last season left NKU with some strong feelings after losing just before the final four to UWP after beating them earlier in the day. However, they deserve the recognition for how much they’d improved since the start of the season. They went 1-4 at the Women’s Spartan Smackdown earlier that spring and were ranked number 6 heading into nationals before they played their hardest against Akron, UC, and UIUC. NKU has started the race to a full team with a great recruitment period with promising players and numbers. They probably have the best shot at forming a full team of nine women to take to nationals in the spring! It will be exciting to see the growth these women will make this season with a year under their belts.
Central Region
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
UWP has also struggled with recruitment this year. Last season, they took a team of six to nationals where they made it to the final four before being knocked out by MSU. This year, they return as a team of six–five vets and one rookie–while still doing all they can to advertise their club despite the weather throwing a wrench in their plans. Fortunately, their veterans are outgoing people with lots of connections on campus, so their drought of players will hopefully be short-lived. Their vets are ready to take on this season, and they are especially looking forward to the additions of Iowa to the division.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
UNL had a official team of four last season but were unable to make 874 mile journey to Akron for nationals last season, but that didn’t stop them from playing in matches against their rivals in the central region nor having a player recognized on the All American list and the rookie team All-American–shout out Rachel Tysdal and Aleah Lazure! Hopefully, this year they will be able to attend more events to further strengthen their team, and we hope to see more women recruited to boost the central region’s number female players even higher. Unfortunately, they need to make it over the injury hurdle of one of their members before the true battle can start.
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
Illinois has been leading the central region women’s league for two seasons now as they continue to defeat close rival, UWP. With the help of their teammate, Alejandro Alanis-Montes, who attended nationals with them, they have reached heights a team of four would think impossible. But this team of four makes it work! They have had the best luck with recruitment so far–at least in the central region–with 3 women showing interest, brining their number of players up to eight. With the knowledge and support of both their vets and open team, these new players are sure to rise quickly and turn heads at their debut.
Others
Grand Valley State University, Bowling Green State University, and Ohio University, among others, have all participated in tournaments in some capacity across the season and at nationals. The players from these schools are often on mixed teams, but that doesn’t stop them from performing well and from getting recognized. Take a look at last seasons All-American teams to see the hard working women from schools with and without official teams!
New Teams/Potential Teams
This season, we welcome five new school to the division with full or partial women’s teams. UW-Eau Claire are welcoming back veterans Cleo Moen and Kaitlynn Moore as well as two potential rookies who made an appearance at the Tim Ebert Scholarship Tournament hosted by UW-Platteville. Similarly, Iowa had two women in toe, veteran Bennie Toko and rookie Delphi Dixon. From their social medias, they have great potential for forming a starter team this year, which is a huge accomplishment as this is only their second official season. Winona is another wildcard in the Central region that would give teams like UWP, Iowa, UNL, and hopefully UWEC a run for their money. These women have participate in several events over the course of the last two seasons, and they are a refreshing addition to the tournaments they attend with their positive attitudes and talented players. The other two schools that have budding women’s team are University of North Georgia (UNG) and University of Virginia (UVA). It is still too early to truly know what’s to come for these two schools, but nonetheless we hope they can build and maintain these teams so the division can continue to grow.