Way-Too-Early Top 30: Ranking No. 21 to No. 25
Welcome back to another edition of my Way-Too-Early Top 30 ranking as we take a look at the way the 2024-25 season is shaping up. Due to a few details, I needed to spend some extra time looking at these teams and the others that are upcoming in this series of articles to make sure everything was in line, which ended up taking a few days. So here we are. The next five teams in my Way-Too-Early ranking! As a reminder, this is very preliminary, considering information on 5th-year seniors and incoming/outgoing transfers are not always available. I can say with some certainty that my official Preseason Top 25 in October will end up looking different from this ranking, so just keep that in mind as you read!
25. Gustavus Adolphus (2023-24 record: 25-3)
The reigning MIAC champs were led by an abundance of seniors last season, and while several of those key contributors have graduated, a new senior class will look to pick up where they left off. For a team that opened its season by dominating UW-Stout (who reached the Sweet 16) and entered the NCAA Tournament coming off a 28-point MIAC Tournament Championship win over Concordia-Moorhead, Gustavus seemed to have success through the entire regular season. A First Round NCAA Tournament exit in a double overtime loss to Trine was certainly disappointing, although it wasn’t entirely out of nowhere, considering Trine took down ninth-ranked Hope in Holland the previous weekend in the MIAA Tournament final.
This season, the Gusties are anticipated to lose three starters from last year’s squad—Emma Kniefel, Syd Hauger, and Izzy Quick—but return their leading scorer (Rachel Kawiecki) and assists leader (Kylie Baranick). Kawiecki was a huge piece to the puzzle for Gustavus a year ago, averaging 11.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. The 5-11 forward, who enters her senior year, affects the game in multiple ways with her defensive capabilities as well as her ability to score consistently in the paint. Joining Kawiecki in the frontcourt (and I’d have to guess the starting lineup as well) will be Morgan Kelly, a 6-0 senior forward who came off the bench in 27 of Gustavus’ 28 games in 2023-24. Kelly led the team in blocks with 29, and made the most of her time on the floor, with 8.5 points and 4.1 boards in 19.4 minutes per game.
Having guard Kylie Baranick back will be critical as well, as she dished out 103 assists and posted a solid 2.1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Baranick’s ability to run the offense and distribute the ball is important, and bringing back a primary ballhandler who can also score (averaged 8.0 PPG) is, I believe, an important factor to look at. It’s not just how many returning starters a team has, but also what positions those returners play. To have your leading scorer and primary ballhandler/point guard both coming back is the No. 1 reason I have Gustavus in my Top 30 right now. There are several teams that were extremely successful a year ago who bring back a starter or two, but to have those two in particular returning for 2024-25 certainly gives me confidence the Gusties can win yet another MIAC title this season.
24. Baldwin Wallace (2023-24 record: 22-7)
Baldwin Wallace seems to be in this conversation virtually every year, and last season, the Yellow Jackets made a Sweet 16 run, taking down Trinity (CT) and SUNY New Paltz in the opening weekend of the tournament. And I fully expect they’ll be back again in 2024-25. That’s the standard of this program, which isn’t easy to do in an always-competitive OAC title race.
The returning production heading into next season is noteworthy, as BW returns its top five scorers including First-Team All-Region honoree Bella Vaillant. A 5-11 forward who is entering her senior year, Vaillant averaged 10.0 points and 7.9 rebounds per game last season, starting all 29 games. She poses a serious threat to opposing defenses with her scoring ability from short-range and will be one of the top returning forwards in Region 7. Caely Ressler will also be a senior in the BW starting lineup, after leading the Yellow Jackets with 24.6 minutes per game in 2023-24. A versatile player who can contribute in either the backcourt or the frontcourt, Ressler comes off a season in which she had 9.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. The duo of Vaillant and Ressler is especially tough to stop, and was a significant factor in BW’s success throughout last season.
Guard play is also a strong point for the Yellowjackets, as all three starting guards are set to come back, meaning BW will return all five starters. Emily Irwin headlines the backcourt from a scoring standpoint, and ranked third on the team in points per game last season, at 9.2 Her 2.2 assists per game were also a team-high, and Irwin is likely to be the third senior in the starting lineup when BW opens its season, giving the Yellow Jackets a tremendous amount of depth and experience in the 2024-25 season. This is a team set up to win an OAC title, and being able to enter a season with so much on-court chemistry is invaluable when looking at the potential for success.
23. Elizabethtown (2023-24 record: 19-8)
The Landmark Conference was incredibly tough at the top last year, with Scranton and Catholic both highly-ranked for much of the season. As it turned out, those were also the league’s two representatives in the NCAA Tournament, with Elizabethtown narrowly missing out on the postseason. A program who reached the tournament in each of the previous two seasons, ETown put together a high-level non-conference schedule that include Loras, Christopher Newport, and Dickinson. An 0-2 performance in Puerto Rico against Loras and Chatham hurt the Blue Jays’ chances at a Pool C bid, despite both losses coming by a combined grand total of nine points. This was also a team that took down Scranton in January, beat a quality Susquehanna squad by 16 early in the league schedule, and lost twice to Catholic by single digits. Point being, this was a very good team last year that simply didn’t have enough wins to reach the NCAAs, and with all five starters back, expectations will be high.
Summer McNulty, a prolific guard entering her senior year, leads the charge, having averaged 15.2 points per game a season ago. Her passing ability is a major aspect of what is an All-America caliber skill set, as she dished out 92 assists in 27 contests, also leading ETown in that stat category. Cyleigh Wilson will join McNulty in the backcourt, and bringing Wilson back for a 5th year is a huge part of the anticipated success. Wilson, who averaged 27.9 minutes/game last season, had 12.8 points per game, including 19 in the five-point loss to then-No. 24 Loras.
DaniRae Renno is another player that will lead the charge into 2024-25, as the 6-2 forward enters her senior season. Renno averaged 9.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, along with a total of 25 blocks last year, and having quality forwards to complement the guard play is a must (in most cases) when looking at roster construction and what it takes to build a championship team. Scranton and Catholic will be formidable foes in the Landmark once again, though I do think, especially with the installment of NPI as the new NCAA Tournament selection formula, this could be a three-bid league. The non-conference performance for Elizabethtown will certainly play a big factor, and if the Blue Jays can get a few breaks to go their way in those games (and stay healthy in the second half of the season), good things might just be on the horizon for this talented squad.
22. Chatham (2023-24 record: 24-4)
Chatham may have one of the strongest benches in Division III next season, considering this team brings back essentially its entire rotation that led them to a PAC Tournament title, along with several high-level transfers. Watching Chatham play last season, I was very impressed by the style of play and the overall balance seen offensively, with five different players averaging 8.0 points per game. The team chemistry was certainly there, and it produced the best season Chatham has ever seen.
Now, it seems the Cougars will have all of that plus the addition of several key D-III transfers, making them a clear Top 25 team for me. Sarah Lawrence’s Kendall Haymore, a 5-11 forward, heads to Chatham after averaging 19.3 PPG and 14.9 RPG last season. Two Roanoke starters are headed to Pittsburgh as well, in Madison Nereu and Lauren Keel. Nereu, as a sophomore forward in 2023-24, made 27 starts, averaging 11.2 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 3.5 APG. Keel, who played four years at Roanoke, averaged 12.1 PPG and 6.9 RPG for the Maroons.
Head coach David Saur and his staff won’t have an easy time figuring out the starting five with that much talent on the same roster! Ashlie Louden and Alyssa Laukus highlight the returning group, as each averaged 25+ minutes/game in 2023-24 and led the team in scoring. Louden’s 14.3 PPG ranked sixth in the PAC, as she put up multiple 20+ point performances, including a 23-point effort in the PAC title game against Geneva. Laukus, who had 10.4 PPG, tallied three double-doubles, and was a huge threat scoring-wise in addition to her rebounding presence. Her 5.6 rebounds per game led the team and Laukus, a 6-0 forward, shot 57.1% from the field along with a 52.1% mark on 3-point attempts (38-of-73).
One thing the coaching staff did especially well was distribute the minutes last season amongst a fairly young roster, as Chatham should bring back seven players who averaged above 20 minutes/game. That level of depth is huge. The Cougars will have quite a few seniors in the returning group, so experience is at a high point as well. Aurielle Brunner is another one of those seniors, and certainly a name to know on this roster. I thought Brunner did a fantastic job of running the offense last season, leading the way with 107 assists as she also added 8.0 PPG. And defensively? She had 122 steals, the most in the PAC and the fourth-most in the country. The Cougars are going to be strong at every position, and that makes for a dangerous formula, especially with the success of last year. I’m going to keep Chatham here for now, but we’ll see. This team has quite a bit of potential and I could definitely see the Cougars moving into my Top 20 at some point in the first half of the season.
21. Vassar (2023-24 Record: 25-3)
In her first year at the helm of the Vassar program, Meredith Mesaris led the Brewers to one of their finest seasons in recent memory. The 25-3 record was only one aspect of it, as Vassar also went 17-1 in the Liberty League, and won the tournament title, reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. That came in addition to sweeping the regular season series with perennial power Ithaca—the first time Vassar had done so in 15 meetings, dating all the way back to 1993. As we look ahead to 2024-25, there’s good reason to believe Vassar will exceed even last season’s significant success and be in contention for a Top 15 national ranking by the season’s end. After all, all five starters from last year’s squad are expected to return, as is essentially the entire roster. Vassar didn’t have a single senior on the 2023-24 roster, and while departures, early graduations, and other factors can certainly come into play, by the looks of it, the Brewers will have the exact same rotation, with everyone on the roster a year older.
That includes Tova Gelb, a standout guard who enters her senior year. Gelb, who averaged 32.6 minutes per game last season, averaged 14.3 points and 9.3 rebounds, leading Vassar in both categories. She had a breakout year by all accounts, improving her points per game by 6.1, her rebounds per game by 4.5, her overall assist total by 27 (averaged 2.3 APG this past season), and her overall steal total by 24 (averaged 1.8 steals/game).
Sierra McDermed is another key contributor in the backcourt who made big strides from 2022-23 to 2023-24, leading all the way up to a 25-point performance against Washington & Lee in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, a team that went all the way to the Elite Eight. McDermed, who will be a junior this season, averaged 14.6 points per game in addition to posting a team-high in blocks (36) and a team-best 33.2 minutes per game. The San Antonio, Texas native has a versatile skill set, which is always key.
Julia Harvey is the third big returning scorer for Vassar, having averaged 13.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in 28.2 minutes per game. In case you haven’t already realized, Vassar is a well-balanced team, with three returning starters who averaged 13+ points per game, several quality rebounders, and a strong backcourt. And it’s not just the starters. Caroline Siekman, a 5-11 forward, averaged 4.5 rebounds per game in just 17.4 minutes/game last season, and really rebounded well in the W&L game, which was encouraging to see. Vassar’s talent goes beyond its starting five, and having reliable depth off the bench, with players like Siekman and Maddie Ahearn will be another benefit of having so many returners on the 2024-25 roster.
Way-Too-Early Preseason Top 30 (so far)
Vassar
Chatham
Elizabethtown
Baldwin Wallace
Gustavus Adolphus
Concordia Moorhead
Middlebury
Whitman
Guilford
Willamette
#16-#20 will be released on Wednesday morning, so stay tuned!
Keep an eye on Colorado College this year. Bringing back Zoe Tomlinson (All American), Healy Bledsoe, Kayla Mackel and 2 outstanding freshman from last year (Isa Nelson and Rose Kohler) all starters from the previous year. Plus getting back Laura Strenk from an ACL (didn't play last year) and Andie Will (injury...didn't play much last year). Both were standouts in 2022-2023 season. Should have a solid squad. Maybe not Top 30 yet, but this team could be there early on next year.
Love the articles on D3 Women's basketball. Thanks!