BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University women's basketball team begins the 2023-24 season with its first of three straight weekend tournaments Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 11-12, at the Cornell College Classic. The Titans will battle host Cornell Saturday night, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. before taking on Luther College Sunday, Nov. 12, at 1 p.m.
Illinois Wesleyan
    Links on how to follow along can be found on the women's basketball schedule page of IWUsports.com.
TALE OF THE TAPE: Illinois Wesleyan holds a combined 7-0 record against this weekend's competition. IWU is 1-0 against Luther, with the lone meeting coming in Mount Vernon, Iowa five years ago. The Titans hold a 6-0 series lead against the Rams, including a 4-0 away mark. Illinois Wesleyan and Cornell first squared off in 1988, a 59-55 win for IWU.
IS THIS HEAVEN? NO, IT'S IOWA: Illinois Wesleyan will return to the Cornell Classic for the first time since the 2018-19 season, when the Titans took down the Cornell and Luther. Maddie Merritt dropped 20 points and Sydney Shanks snatched nine steals as IWU used a 31-point second quarter to roll past the Rams, 66-52, Nov. 17, 2018. The next day, Molly McGraw scored 18 points and Rebekah Ehresman finished with a near double-double (15 pts, 8 rebs) to overpower Luther, 90-69.
CAPTAINS CALL: Lauren Huber, Caite Knutson, Kate Palmer, and Mallory Powers will serve as the captains for the Titans this season. Huber will lead IWU in the role for the second straight year, while Knutson, Palmer, and Powers garner the role for the first time.
PRESEASON PRAISE: Junior Lauren Huber was recognized as a Preseason All-American by D3hoops.com ahead of the 2023-24 season. A Fifth Team honoree, Huber was one of two CCIW players named to the 25-player list.
MEET THE NEWCOMERS: Illinois Wesleyan ushers in four freshmen as part of the incoming class as Sophia Feeney, Ellie Cahill, Anna Beyers, and Liv Meyers all enter their first collegiate season.
    Feeney, a two-sport athlete for IWU, is a local product. The 5-foot-6 guard was a three-year starter at point guard, where she racked up all-conference, all-area, and other accolades in both volleyball and basketball at Normal Community.
    Cahill, an accomplished prep athlete, graduated from Eureka, where she is the all-time leading points scorer. A nursing major at Illinois Wesleyan, Cahill was a four-year starter at guard and garnered all-state, all-area, and all-conference honors throughout her career.
    A native of Pana, Ill., Beyers was a three-year start at Pana High School She was named the team's MVP as a senior and helped the team to a third-place finish in the 2A state tournament.
    Meyers comes to IWU after a strong career at Elmwood High School. A four-year three-sport athlete, Meyers was a multiple time all-conference pick and also garnered all-state honors.
PRAIRIE STAR TURNED TITAN: Ava Bardic is the lone transfer in IWU's incoming class, joining the Titans by way of Illinois-Springfield. Bardic, a product of Stevenson High School, earned Great Lakes Valley Conference All-Freshman Team honors for the Division II Prairie Stars. She made 42 three-pointers, the most of any freshman in the league, and had the third-highest scoring average of GLVC freshmen at 11.1 ppg.
THE 53rd YEAR OF IWU WOMEN'S HOOPS: Illinois Wesleyan, now in its 53rd year of women's basketball, has compiled a 707-500 overall record. IWU's .586 all-time win percentage includes a 335-201 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin mark.
STAT STUFFERS RETURN: Illinois Wesleyan returns 78 percent of its scoring (1509-of-1940 points) from a season ago, including leading scorer Lauren Huber (18.7 ppg), Mallory Powers (10.4 ppg), Kate Plamer (9.8 ppg), and Caite Knutson (9.5 ppg). In all, IWU welcomes back five of its top six scorers. Additionally the Titans have Powers coming back from a season that saw injury limited her to just 11 games.
    On the glass, the Green and White sees 79 percent of last years production back in 2023-24. Returners accounted for 838 of IWU's 1094 rebounds last season, with Huber pacing the team with 10.2 caroms per contest.
THE DEAN OF THE CCIW: The 2023-24 season marks the 26th year under the direction of Mia Smith, the longest tenured coach in the CCIW. Smith's 474 wins are the most among active CCIW coaches by more than 150. Additionally, Smith's CCIW wins are the second-most in league history.
  Under the tutelage of Smith, IWU has won 10 CCIW Championships and made 10 NCAA Tournament appearances. The Titans won the 2012 NCAA Division III Championship following a fourth-place finish in 2011.
TWO-SPORT STARS: Freshman Sophia Feeney and sophomore Sawyer White continue IWU's history of two-sport athletes. Feeney is a setter on IWU's volleyball team, while White is a Second Team All-CCIW honoree for the women's soccer squad.
CCIW PRESEASON POLL: Illinois Wesleyan was picked to finish second in an annual survey of the CCIW coaches as the league announced its preseason poll, Oct. 23. The Titans received 54 points.
    Millikin topped the poll with eight first-place votes and 64 points, with Carroll coming in third. The Pioneers received one first-place nod and finished with 52 points. Wheaton ranked fourth (43 points), followed by Augustana (35), and Carthage (26). North Park (24), Elmhurst (14), and North Central (12) rounded out the poll.
HALF OF THE ALL-CCIW DUO RETURNS: Illinois Wesleyan saw Lauren Huber and Katelyn Heller reel in All-CCIW honors last season. Huber, a conference player of the year candidate, was a First Team pick, while Heller hauled in Second Team status.
Huber topped the Titans in scoring at 18.7 points per game and finished her double-double average with 10.2 rebounds a game.
HOME GROWN: For the second straight season, the Titans boast a fully-Illinois bred roster. This is just the fourth time since 2012-13 IWU has had a roster without any out-of-state players.
ON THE HORIZON: The 2023-24 season officially gets underway Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 11-12, as the Titans travel to Mount Vernon, Iowa for the Cornell College Tournament. There, IWU will begin its campaign with a 7 p.m. tipoff against host Cornell Saturday night, Nov. 11. The Titans will then tangle with Luther Sunday, Nov. 12, at 1 p.m.
MILESTONE TRACKER: With 56 games played in her IWU career, Lauren Huber is just 128 points away from joining the 1000-point club. Huber scored 367 points as a freshman and 505 as a sophomore, putting her career total of 872. Additionally, the junior is just 45 rebounds away from 500 for her career, as she currently has 455 boards through 56 career games.
