PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team tips off its season on Friday afternoon, hosting NCAA Division III King's College in the front half of a season-opening doubleheader with the Penn men at The Palestra.
 
The Quakers are playing their home opener before embarking on a three-game road trip in three different states to get things started in 2025-26.
 
GAME 1 – PENN (0-0, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. KING'S (0-0)
Friday, Nov. 7, 2025 | 4 p.m.
The Palestra | Philadelphia, Pa.
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | Tickets | Digital Game Program  | Penn Game Notes (PDF)
 
The King's Series
Penn has an all-time record of 2-0 against King's College since the series began back in 2014.
 
The last time these two teams met, the Quakers won 91-55 on Nov. 16, 2021 at The Palestra. The first meeting was an 85-20 victory in favor of Penn on Dec. 31, 2014.
 
Opening Week is Here!
Penn begins its 2025-26 season with a matchup against NCAA Division III opponent King's at The Palestra before hitting the road for three consecutive matchups.
 
The Quakers begin their road trip on Monday night at Delaware State before playing Drexel in the shortest trip in NCAA Division I, just 0.4 miles North on 33rd Street Wednesday evening. The Red and Blue then head to Long Island to face Hofstra next Saturday afternoon.
 
Penn returns home Tuesday, Nov. 18 against Norfolk State for Community Night at 6 p.m.
 
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 Katie 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 Saniah 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).
 
Scouting The Monarchs
King's were picked seventh out of eight teams in the MAC Preseason Poll.
 
The Monarchs went 9-16 last season with a 5-9 record in conference action.
 
Lauren Casey is the team's leading returning scorer after averaging 12.2 points and 7.5 rebounds in 26.4 minutes of action per game. She was named a second-team All-MAC Freedom selection for her overall effort.
 
Gianna Dickson is also back after averaging 9.1 points per game. Cadie Lewis returns after scoring 7.9 points and adding 6.8 rebounds.
 
Loving That Madness
Penn qualified for Ivy Madness for the sixth time in seven seasons last year, once again narrowly falling to top-seed Columbia, 60-54, in the semifinals.
 
Almqvist finished with a team-high 17 points, adding three rebounds, an assist, and three steals to earn All-Ivy League Tournament honors.
 
The Quakers matched their 2023-24 mark by finishing the year 15-13 overall and 6-8 in Ivy play. In addition, Penn went 0-2 in Big 5 pod play, but defeated La Salle, 74-63, in the inaugural Big 5 Classic at Villanova's Finneran Pavilion.
 
Penn And The Power Six
Since head coach Mike McLaughlin took over in 2009-10, Penn has consistently faced one of the Ivy League's toughest non-conference schedules. The Quakers have squared off against six top-15 opponents over the last 13 seasons — including No. 3 Notre Dame (2011-12), No. 5 Notre Dame (2013-14), No. 4 Tennessee (2014-15), No. 14 Duke (2015-16), No. 3 Notre Dame (2017-18) and No. 1 Notre Dame (2018-19).

Penn has also regularly tested itself against programs from the Power Six conferences. During the 2013-14 season, the Quakers earned their first-ever win over an ACC opponent, edging Miami (Fla.) 67-66 on the road en route to an Ivy League title.

This season, McLaughlin has scheduled another elite opponent in preseason No. 4 Texas. The Quakers will travel to Austin on Nov. 30 to face a Longhorns team that went 35-4 last year and reached the Women's Final Four before falling to eventual national champion South Carolina.

Magic Number: 60
Few numbers tell Penn's story under McLaughlin better than 60. The Quakers have won 161 of their last 176 regular-season games when scoring at least 60 points in regulation. Over the last eight seasons, they are 171-19 when reaching that mark.

The contrast is stark when they fall short — Penn is just 50-142 (.288) in games scoring fewer than 60 points during McLaughlin's tenure. The same trend holds on the defensive end. Over the last 11 seasons, the Red and Blue are 55-107 (.347) when allowing 60 points or more, but 190-36 (.836) when holding opponents below that number.

For the latest on Penn Women's basketball, follow @PennWBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.