PHILADELPHIA – The new season is here! The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team begins their 2024-25 campaign Friday afternoon at The Palestra when Merrimack comes to town for a 2 p.m. tip.
 
The Quakers are coming off another Ivy Madness appearance—their fifth in six seasons—last year while finishing with an overall record 15-13 and 7-7 in a competitive Ivy League slate.
 
The Warriors fell to Bryant, 65-50, on Monday night to open their season following an up-and-down 2023-24 season where they went 12-19 overall and 8-8 in NEC play. Merrimack ended up falling to top-seeded Sacred Heart in the NEC semifinals, 73-41.
 
GAME 1 – Penn (0-0, 0-0 Ivy) vs. Merrimack (0-1, 0-0 MAAC)
Friday, Nov. 8, 2024 | 2 p.m.
The Palestra | Philadelphia, Pa.
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | Tickets
Penn Game Notes (PDF)  | Merrimack Game Notes (PDF)
 
The Penn-Merrimack Series
*Friday's meeting is just the second between the two teams in program history. Penn earned a hard-fought victory over Merrimack on Dec. 8, 2023, getting a 71-62 win on the road.
 
*Jordan Obi put together a career performance, dropping a career-high 30 points with 13 rebounds for her second consecutive double-double. Mataya Gayle added 14 points, four assists, and a game-high three steals. Lizzy Groetsch had an all-around complete performance with nine points, eight boards, five assists, two assists, and two blocks. Penn forced the Warriors into 17 points, converting them into 22 points.
 
Hello, Opening Week!
*Penn opens its 2024-25 season Friday against Merrimack at The Palestra before heading to Maine on Sunday in a return trip of a home-and-home with the Black Bears. The Quakers topped the Warriors, 71-62, in North Andover and beat Maine, 72-69, at home last year.
 
*The Quakers are 8-6 in home openers in the Mike McLaughlin coaching era but have won five of their last six such games since the 2017-18 campaign.
 
*Five days after its date with the Merrimack, Penn returns to the Cathedral of College Basketball to host Siena on Wednesday. The Red and Blue defeated the Saints, 85-79, last season.
 
Kicking Things Off
*Things are certainly looking up for the Quakers as the 2024-25 season gets underway this week. Penn was picked to finish fourth in the Ivy League's preseason poll, earning 75 voting points by a panel of 16 media members.
 
*Penn returns a pair of key starters from last year in senior Stina Almqvist (second-team All-Ivy) and sophomore Gayle (Ivy Rookie of the Year).
 
*Almqvist and Groetsch were named the Quakers' captains for the season.
 
Another Year of Madness
Penn completed another successful season in 2023-24 after qualifying for Ivy Madness for the fifth time in six seasons, narrowly falling to top-seeded and eventual champion Princeton, 59-54, in the semifinals.
 
Gayle dropped a team-high 20 points against the Tigers and was subsequently named a member of the Ivy League's All-Tournament team.
 
The Quakers went 15-13 overall and 7-7 in Ancient Eight play by season's end. In addition, Penn finished Big 5 play with a 1-3 record and a fourth-place finish.
 
Fresh Faces
*Six student-athletes make up Penn Women's Basketball's Class of 2028 including four guards and two forwards.
 
*Guards include Ashna Tambe, Sarah Miller, Brooke Suttle, and Reagan Jamison.
 
*The Quakers have two new forwards in Katie Collins and Gabriella Kelley.
 
*Both Tambe (The Hockaday School) and Kelley (SF University HS) scored over 1,000 points in their high school careers with Tambe leaving as the program's all-time leading scorer (with over 1,600 points).
 
Impressive First Season
Gayle's rookie campaign was nothing short of impressive as she looks for more of the same in 2024-25, hoping to take that next step.
 
She was one of just three Quakers—and the only freshman—to start all 28 games and finished third on the team in scoring (14.3 ppg), while grabbing 86 rebounds (3.1 rpg). Among Ivy players, she was fifth in three-pointers per game (1.8), eighth in assists (3.1), eighth in steals (1.5) and 10th in points (14.3) as a freshman.
 
Gayle also made her national mark after being named USBWA National Rookie of the Week on Jan. 3 when she dropped 28 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and three steals in a victory over eventual America East champion Maine.
 
Scouting The Warriors
Merrimack opened its 2024-25 season on Monday night with a 65-50 loss to Bryant in Smithfield, R.I.
 
Three Warriors finished in double figures with Thalia Shepard (15 points), Mia Fiore (12), and Paloma Garcia (10) scoring 37 of the team's 50 points. Madison Roman had a team-high seven rebounds to go along with her five points and four steals, while Garcia also added four takeaways.
 
Merrimack shot just 27.3 percent (18-for-66) in the loss and 20 percent (4-for-20) from beyond-the-arc. Its defense allowed Bryant to go 46.4 percent (26-for-56) from the field while holding them to just five makes on 20 attempts from deep.
 
20-Win Seasons
Penn is the only team in the Ivy League to surpass the 20-win plateau in seven-straight years under Coach Mike McLaughlin after concluding the 2019-20 campaign. With no play in the Ivy League in 2020-21 due to the pandemic, the 2021-22 season was the first under-.500 season for the Quakers since the 2011-12 season when Penn went 13-15 (Coach McLaughlin's third season at the helm) but bounced back last year with a 17-12 tally.
 
All-Time Wins Leader
Coach McLaughlin is Penn's all-time wins leader, surpassing Lois Ashley's mark of 128 wins in 12 seasons with his 129th win at Dartmouth on March 3, 2017. The head man now sits with a record of 243-162 (.600) at Penn. In addition, McLaughlin earned the 650th win of his career last season against Harvard; that ranks him ninth among active Division I coaches.
 
Penn And The Power Six
Penn has traditionally played a challenging non-conference schedule since McLaughlin took the helm in 2009-10. In fact, the Quakers have played six non-conference top-15 teams in the last 12 seasons (#3 Notre Dame in 2011-12, #5 Notre Dame in 2013-14, #4 Tennessee 2014-15, #14 Duke in 2015-16, #3 Notre Dame in 2017-18, #1 Notre Dame in 2018-19).
 
Among non-league foes, Penn has scheduled its share of teams from the power six conferences. En route to the Ivy title in 2013-14, the Quakers earned their first-ever win over an ACC opponent with a 67-66 win at Miami (Fla). Last season, Penn took on #23 Marquette and Villanova last season.
 
Winning Streaks
Prior to McLaughlin, Penn had just one winning streak of more than seven games in its entire history (21). However, in the last six seasons, the Quakers have had nine such winning streaks, including an 11-game win streak that the Quakers were on last season until falling at Princeton (55-40) on January 16. It marked the second-longest stretch in program history only to the 21 from 2000-01.
 
Additionally, two seasons ago, the Quakers sported 12 straight wins in The Palestra from December 2022 to mid-February 2023, a program record that eclipsed the 10 set back in the 21-game stretch.
 
Magic Number: 60
The statistic that may most indicate a Penn win or loss? 60 points. Penn has won 150 of its last 162 regular season games when scoring at least 60 points in regulation. Since head coach Mike McLaughlin took over at Penn, the Quakers are 188-214 (.906) when they reach that number (160-16 over the last eight seasons). In comparison, the Quakers are just 50-136 (.288) when they've scored less than 60 points under McLaughlin. The trend continues defensively. Over the last 10 seasons, the Red and Blue are 50-98 (.347) when allowing 60 points or more. But when holding opponents under that number, the Quakers hold a healthy winning record of 185-36 (.836).
 
Follow the Action
Dan Fritz (play-by-play) and Nicki Jones (analyst) will do the honors of having the first broadcast call of the 2024-25 season at The Palestra on ESPN+. Live stats will also be provided through pennstats.com.
 
For the latest on Penn women's basketball, follow @PennWBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.