By Kyle Roberts
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It starts tonight at the University of Arkansas.
The 2025-26 Lady Techster squad, heavily compiled of returners from last year’s WNIT Great Eight run, will take to the hardwood tonight and look to continue the momentum from last year’s young team.
“This is the most exciting time of the year for us,” Lady Techster Head Coach Brooke Stoehr said. “As coaches, you never feel like you’re ready, but I think this group has prepared well. Right out of the gate, we’re going to be facing an SEC team on the road, and I think it’s a good test for this group. I’ve been pleased with where we are at the point but just continually trying to be consistent with our play and level of intensity every single day.”
Louisiana Tech finished with 18 wins on the season, including three postseason wins following an invite to the Women’s National Inviational Tournament. And with a consistent roster last season with minimal turnover, the coaches in the conference voted the Techsters as a preseason favorite and bestowed sophomore Paris Bradley as the C-USA Preseason Player of the Year with both Bradley and sophomore Jordan Marshall being named to the Preseason All-CUSA team.
But for Stoehr, it’s not about preseason accolades or predictions — it’s about getting better as a team everyday in practice and focusing on things that will lead to more wins.”
“We’ve got to generate some more possessions,” Stoehr said. “We have to turn people over more than we did last year. When we go back and look at stats as a team based off our analytics, our field goal percentage defense was too high. We have to force teams to take tougher shots and be more disruptive. I think we addressed some of those things by adding some athleticism and length on the perimeter and on the interior. That’s going to help us — it’s going to give us some versatility to do some things a little bit differently. I’m excited about that. I think we’ve been working really hard with that, but going into the offseason that was one thing as a staff we really focused on is generating more possessions offensively. We’re going to see that hopefully early in the season.”
Returning sophomore Averi Aaron caught fire last year in the conference tournament and WNIT after being sidelined early in the season with injuries and said she is excited about the upcoming season.
“It feels really good to be able to actually keep playing past the first scrimmage this year,” Aaron said. “It seems like everything is starting to build up in stacking days, so it’s great. I feel like the more confident we all are individually, it makes us more confident together and a harder opponent to play.”
Stoehr talked about the importance of junior point guard Jianna Morris having a veteran presence for her team this season.
“Her statistical increase was big from a field goal and three-point percentage,” Stoehr said of Morris. “We’ve got to have that plus more from her this year. And the experience of being a third year player that’s started a lot of games — I think that’s going to pay big dividends for this group.”
Bradley, Marshall and Morris are the team’s leading scorers from last season after averaging 37.5 points per game — more than half of the team’s offensive production last season. Sophomore Isla Airey also returns after blocking 61 shots.
Marshall also led the squad in rebounds per contest at 8.6 per game. Senior Mackenzie Wurm will be back in the lineup, as well, after sitting out the entire 2024-25 season. In her career, Wurm has appeared in 74 games for Louisiana Tech.
Joining the core group will be six newcomers: sophomore Tulane transfer Joy Madison-Key, sophomore Oklahoma State transfer Kennedy Evans, a pair of juniors from Three Rivers College in Alexia Weaver and Kaleigh Thompson, and two freshmen in Hillary Dawson and Jayden Terry. Weaver and Thompson combined for 1,368 points, 594 rebounds, and 195 assists during their time for the Lady Raiders.
Tech opens up tonight against Arkansas at 6:30 p.m. at Bud Walton Arena. The game will be on the SEC Network and broadcast on 97.7 FM. It will mark the sixth meeting between the Lady Techsters and the Razorbacks, with LA Tech leading three games to two.
| 1 | Alexia Weaver | Guard | 5-8 | Jr. |
| 3 | Hillary Dawson | Forward | 6-3 | Fr. |
| 4 | Joy Madison-Key | Guard | 5-8 | R-So. |
| 10 | Jayden Terry | Guard | 5-9 | Fr. |
| 15 | Jordan Marshall | Forward | 6-0 | So. |
| 18 | Isla Airey | Forward | 6-4 | So. |
| 21 | Kennedy Evans | Guard | 5-10 | So. |
| 22 | Jianna Morris | Guard | 5-7 | Jr. |
| 23 | Paris Bradley | Guard | 5-9 | So. |
| 25 | Averi Aaron | Forward | 6-1 | So. |
| 30 | Kaleigh Thompson | Guard | 6-0 | Jr. |
| 33 | Mackenzie Wurm | Forward | 6-4 | Gr. |
