Women's Basketball: In Anchorwomen, Warriors Face Stiff Little East Challenge

1/20/2026 8:31:00 PM

Team Records:
Eastern: 7-9 (4-3 LEC)
RIC 11-5 (5-2 LEC)

Series History:

Eastern and Rhode Island College meet for the 105th time in a series which pre-dates the Little East Conference by 12 years. The Anchormen have won the last six meetings. The teams have split the last 20 games in the series and the last ten at Geissler Gym. RIC is 8-2 in the last ten games after Eastern was 8-2 in the previous ten.

RIC's current six-game streak is its longest against Eastern in the series while the Warriors have recorded consecutive wins against the Anchorwomen of 16 between 1986 and 1992 and 13 between 2000 and 2006.

Tonight's game is the first of two between the clubs in the regular season, with the clubs set to square off again in exactly three weeks at the Murray Center. RIC has won the last three over Eastern at Geissler Gym. Eastern's last win over RIC here came by a score of 66-56 in the second game of the two-game set in 2022/23 and came on the heels of a 14-point loss earlier in the year at the Murray Center.

The Anchorwomen won both games by an average of 8.5 points last year after taking both the year prior by an average of 40. In a six-point loss when the teams last met here last Feb. 19, Madison Medbury and Meagan Schuermann (named to this week's NEWBA honor roll) totalled 45 points and 22 rebounds and Angelina Nardolillo grabbed 12 rebounds. Eastern's Taylor Salato led all players with 25 points and added ten rebounds. Only Schuermann among those four players is back.

Game Notes:

Picked to finish second in the LEC pre-season poll, RIC shares second place with Keene State College while Eastern shares fourth place with UMass Boston.

Since a 9-2 start, RIC is 2-3, with its last two LEC wins against Keene State and UMass Boston coming against teams which have defeated Eastern this season. The Warriors had won three of four before dropping a 76-62 decision at unbeaten LEC leader Southern Maine Saturday

Two years ago, RIC became the first program since Southern Maine won 11 tournament titles in a row (1997-07) to win as many as four straight tournament crowns. Those four titles followed the two straight won by Eastern.

The Anchorwomen have lost two All-LEC players from last year's regular-season co-championship team, including POY and DPOY Medbury. Eastern graduated Salato, a first-team All-LEC forward.

Eastern junior Marissa Nudd was named LEC and NEWBA Player-of-the-Week earlier this week after averaging 27.5 points and 5.5 rebounds with a 66.7 shooting percentage. Nudd's 36 points against Castleton -- 26 coming in the first half -- tied the program record and are the second-most by a player in the Little East this year

Nudd is third in the LEC in scoring (18.4) and eighth in rebounding (6.9) and first in minutes (36.4)... Eastern's Liv Cassesse (4.3) shares the LEC assist lead. Ranked sixth in the LEC in scoring, Schuermann (15.9) is one of RIC's three double-digit scorers, along with eighth-ranked Abby Wager (14.5) and Shalyn Smith (10.4). Eva Monahan, a 6-foor-2 inch freshman, averages 7.2 points (fifth in the LEC), with Wager and Schuermann next at 6.8 and 6.4, respectively.

As a team, RIC leads the LEC in FT percentage (78.0) while Eastern is third (72.1)...the Anchorwomen are also the LEC leader in defensive rebounding average (29.8)... the teams rank 1-2 (RIC-Eastern) in the conference in blocked shots (combining for 147), both averaging over four per game. Wager (2.4) ranks first, Eastern's Alyssa Paquette (1.8) second, Schuermann (1.2) sixth and first-year Eastern forward Katelyn Novak (0.8) tied for eighth.

Upcoming:

After receiving its LEC bye this Saturday, Eastern begins the second round of LEC competition next Wednesday when it hosts Western Connecticut State University at 5 p.m. The Warriors won the first time around in the LEC opener for both teams, 65-59, back on December 3 at Feldman Center.
Eastern made it 14 straight wins and 23 of 24 over WestConn back in December but needed to wipe out a 12-point deficit by outscoring the Wolves, 24-8, in the final quarter. Cassesse had 16 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals for Eastern and Nudd 16 points and nine rebounds. With the help of 13 offensive rebounds, WestConn outscored Eastern 15-0 on second-half points, nearly doubling Eastern's points in the paint (40-22).