PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team closes out its three-game road trip on Saturday, taking on its second consecutive CAA foe in Hofstra on Long Island.
 
The Quakers are looking to get back on track after falling to Drexel Wednesday evening in Big 5 pod play, while the Pride are going for their second straight victory after beating Ivy League opponent Yale, 73-66, Tuesday in New Haven.
 
GAME 3 – PENN (2-1, 0-0 Ivy League) at HOFSTRA (1-1, 0-0 CAA)
Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 | 1 p.m.
David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex | Hempstead, N.Y.
Watch on FloSports ($) | Live Stats | Tickets | Penn Game Notes (PDF)
 
The Penn-Hofstra Series
Saturday will mark Penn's first-ever visit to Hempstead to take on Hofstra in the program's third meeting all-time.
 
The Quakers are 2-0 in the all-time series, picking up wins over the Pride in both the 2014-15 and 2001-02 seasons.
 
Penn picked up a 65-58 win over Hofstra the last time these two teams faced off back on March 19, 2015 at The Palestra.
 
Last Time Out
Penn fell to 2-1 after a difficult second quarter proved too much to overcome in a 72-55 loss at unbeaten Drexel in Wednesday's Big 5 pod opener.
 
The Quakers were outscored 17-1 in that frame and went more than seven minutes without a field goal, trailing 44-14 at halftime. Despite the deficit, Penn showed late fight by winning the fourth quarter, 23-11.
 
Mataya Gayle led the Quakers with 13 points and seven assists, while Tina Njike added nine points and 11 rebounds and nearly posted her second straight double-double. Katie Collins pulled down a team-high 12 boards, and Saniah Caldwell provided a second-half spark with nine points off the bench.
 
Penn shot 28.8 percent from the field and 6-for-28 from deep.
 
Opening Week is Here!
Penn began its 2025-26 season with two victories, beating King's on Friday in its season opener before taking down Delaware State on the road Monday night.
 
Penn continued its road trip down the street to Drexel, falling to the Dragons. The Red and Blue now head to Long Island to face Hofstra on Saturday.
 
Penn returns home Tuesday, Nov. 18 against Norfolk State for Community Night at 6 p.m.
 
The DSU Recap
Penn improved to 2-0 with a 63-41 win at Delaware State on Monday night, pulling away in the final three quarters after a tight opening frame. The Quakers used a 20-6 run in the second quarter to build a double-digit lead and never looked back, earning their first road victory in the three all-time meetings against the Hornets.
 
Tina Njike led the way with her first career double-double, finishing with 15 points and 12 rebounds to pace Penn on both ends. Katie Collins added eight points and 12 boards, while Saniah Caldwell chipped in nine points off the bench.
 
 The Quakers shot 44 percent (23-for-52) from the field and 81 percent (13-for-16) from the foul line. Defensively, Penn stifled Delaware State, holding the Hornets to just 25 percent shooting (15-for-59) overall and forcing 19 turnovers. The win marks the Quakers' second straight 2-0 start to a season and remain unbeaten (3-0) all-time against Delaware State.
 
The King's Win
In the season opener last Friday, Penn picked up a dominant 105–31 win over King's College at The Palestra, shooting 55.3 percent from the field and holding the Monarchs to just 20 percent overall and from 3-point range.
 
Thirteen Quakers scored in the victory, led by Collins with 18 points in 16 minutes. Sarah Miller added 13 points, Njike posted 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks, and freshman Ruke Ogbevire chipped in 11 points off the bench.
 
Penn's depth made the difference, outscoring King's 63–14 in bench points while also owning advantages in points off turnovers (38–4), points in the paint (56–4), second-chance points (21–1) and fast-break points (20–0).
 
A Bright Future
Just like how things finished up last season, the Quakers were picked to finish fourth in the Ivy League's preseason poll, earning 106 points by a panel of 16 media members.
 
Despite losing a pair of key starters—first-team All-Ivy selection Stina Almqvist and Lizzy Groetsch—to graduation, Penn returns three key members of the starting lineup in Mataya Gayle, Simone Sawyer, and Collins. Gayle (2023-24) and Collins (2024-25) have won each of the last two Ivy League Rookie of the Year awards.
 
Another familiar face is re-joining her teammates as Ese Ogbevire is set to make her 2025-26 debut after missing all of the 2024-25 campaign with a torn ACL. Ogbevire shined brightly during her freshman season, averaging 4.7 points per game, adding 23 assists and nine steals. She was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week twice.
 
Things looked promising for Brooke Suttle when the season finished up last season, as she made a tremendous impact late in the year. She played the most minutes (27) of her rookie season at Princeton on Feb. 8 before finding herself getting more playing time by year's end. In the Quakers' 60-54 loss to Columbia in the Ivy League Tournament semis, Suttle poured in six points with six rebounds in 17 minutes.
 
So Many Fresh Faces
Penn has a freshman class of four this season, bringing the team total to 17 student-athletes.
 
Ruke Ogbevire (Houston, Texas/Fulshear), Ari Paraskevopoulou (Athens, Greece/16th General HS of Athens), Kate Lipatova (Moscow, Russia/Putnam Science Academy (Conn.), and Sarah Gordon (Vestavia Hills, Ala./Vestavia Hills) are all eager to make their collegiate debuts this season, maybe as soon as Friday afternoon.
 
Of the four, two (Ogbevire, 1,895 points; Gordon, 2,168) graduated as their high school's all-time leading scorers, while the other two (Paraskevopoulou, Greece; Lipatova, Russia) played for their national teams.
 
In addition to the players, Mike McLaughlin has a new member on his coaching staff in Ryan Weise (pronounced 'wee-see'), who became an assistant coach following two seasons as Holy Cross' Director of Basketball Operations.
 
With the departure of longtime associate head coach Kelly Killion, who took the head coaching job at American University in the offseason, McLaughlin promoted another longtime assistant Ashley Robinson to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator.
 
Captain, Captain, Captain, Captain, Captain
Penn has a program-record tying five captains leading the team in 2025-26.
 
The leadership group is made up of seniors Caldwell, Sawyer, and Georgia Heine, as well as junior Gayle and sophomore Collins.
 
There's only two other occasions in program history that the Quakers had five—2004-05 and 2020-21 (a season that was canceled due to COVID-19).
 
Magic Number: 60
The statistic that may most indicate a Penn win or loss? 60 points. Penn has won 163 of its last 178 regular season games when scoring at least 60 points in regulation. Over the last eight seasons under McLaughlin, the Quakers are 173-19 when reaching that number. In comparison overall, the Quakers are just 50-143 (.288) when they've scored less than 60 points under McLaughlin. The trend continues defensively. Over the last 11 seasons, the Red and Blue are 55-108 (.347) when allowing 60 points or more. But when holding opponents under that number, the Quakers hold a healthy winning record of 190-36 (.836).
 
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