CHADRON, Neb. – After two exhibition games gave them a taste of on-court action, Chadron State women's basketball will tip off the regular season against an in-state rival at the Chicoine Center this Saturday. 

The Eagles will host the Wayne State Wildcats at 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning in Chadron, a matinee tipoff sandwiched between Friday and Saturday night volleyball matches. It will be the first regular season game of the year for both teams. 

The game can be streamed online on the RMAC Network or followed with live stats. 

Looking Back
Chadron State hit the road to challenge themselves against Division I opposition, facing the University of Wyoming and Montana State University in a pair of exhibition matches on November 1 and November 4. 

While the Eagles fell 78-39 to Wyoming and 92-28 to Montana State, neither game will count towards CSC's win-loss record or season stats. Wyoming and Montana State aren't just any D1 programs either – Wyoming was picked second out of 11 teams in the Mountain West Conference's Preseason Poll while Montana State was also picked second out of 10 teams in the Big Sky poll. 

Last season, Chadron State finished 6-20 overall with a 4-18 record in RMAC competition. The Eagles received a Second Team All-RMAC season from forward Ashayla Powers, but battled the injury bug all season long, losing their final eight games. 

The Eagles finished 14^th in the RMAC standings last year. They were projected to improve on that finish in this season's Preseason Coaches Poll, as CSC was picked 13^th out of 15 schools.

The Roster
Chadron State has a returning core from last season to build around. From last season, four of CSC's top five scorers, three of their top five rebounders and four of their top five assist leaders come back to this year's roster.

Leading the charge is Powers, a Longmont, Colorado native set to begin her senior season. Powers earned a First Team All-RMAC selection in 2022-23 before her Second Team nod last year. In 2023-24, she averaged 12.3 points and 6.6 rebounds per game last season while shooting 52.7 percent from the field. 

Powers had a streak of four games in a row with 15 or more points from February 16-24 last season, including a 25-point, 12-rebound double-double against New Mexico Highlands. Powers led Chadron State in scoring in both exhibition games, putting up 13 points against Wyoming and 12 points against Montana State.

Powers was included in the RMAC's Women's Basketball Players to Watch List released Tuesday.

Behind Powers, offensive contributors Megan Counts (7.6 ppg in 2023-24), Kylie Krise (7.5) and Liberty Line (7.1) also return. Also coming back are CSC's two main distributors from last season, junior Kadyn Comer (59 assists) and junior Kyra Tanabe (54 assists). 

Olivia Waufle, who ranked third on the team with 24.3 minutes played per game last season, is back as a junior after averaging 5.7 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. Camren Morris, a key reserve who was one of only three Eagles last season to appear in every game during her true freshman season, averaged 3.2 points in 11 minutes per game and is back this year. 

There are several new additions to the roster, as well. Guard Allison Richards, a Pine Ridge, South Dakota native, joins the Eagles after ranking fifth in the nation in scoring at the junior college level last season. Richards put up 23.3 points per game for the Northeast Community College Hawks. 

Several additions have an international flair. Both junior Bati Assefa, a Salt Lake Community College transfer, and 6-foot-1 freshman Tyra Eriksson hail from Sweden. Fellow freshman Shakani Murray comes to Chadron from Kaitaia, New Zealand. 

The other new players on the CSC are junior college transfers McKenzi Petersen, a 6-foot-2 forward from Dawson CC, and Jordyn Stokes, a sophomore guard who spent a year at Iowa Lakes CC, as well as two more freshmen in Arvada, Colorado's Malorie Byrne and Erie, Colorado's Alex Ridenour. 

The Coaches
Head Coach Travis Brewster is back for his second season leading the Chadron State women's basketball program. 

A veteran head coach, Brewster was previously a head coach at the University of North Dakota for eight seasons, going 128-120 with the Fighting Hawks and winning two Big Sky Coach of the Year awards in 2014 and 2017. In his time at UND, Brewster won two Big Sky co-regular season championships and one Big Sky tournament championship with one NCAA Tournament appearance in 2014 and one WNIT appearance in 2017.  

He was also a head coach for two seasons with Saint Xavier (NAIA), where he put together a 45-16 record. He was the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Coach of the Year in 2022, a year he also led Saint Xavier to a conference championship and NAIA national tournament berth. 

As a student-athlete, Brewster competed at Iowa Lakes Community College and Charleston Southern University before playing professionally in Switzerland and Ireland. 

On staff, Brewster is joined by assistant coaches Tyra Carlsten Handberg, who is in her second season with the program, and Katie Tornstrom, who is in her first season with CSC. Livia Castellanos, who previously played for Chadron State in 2022-23, has joined the coaching staff as a student assistant. 

The Opponent
Wayne State will also be opening the 2024-25 season on Saturday. Last season, the Wildcats finished with a 7-18 record, going 4-18 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). 

Wayne State's leading scorer from a season ago does not return to the team this year, but their second-leading scorer, forward Maya Fitzpatrick, is back as a senior. Fitzpatrick averaged 9.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.4 steals per contest in 2023-24 and was named as one of the NSIC's "Players To Watch" this season. 

Other returning contributors for Wayne State include senior Carsyn Boswell (31.8 minutes, 7.2 points per game) and 6-foot-3 sophomore center Brooklyn Kruse (5.7 points, 0.8 blocks per game). 

Head Coach Brent Pollari is in his seventh season in charge at Wayne State. He has a 64-87 record with the Wildcats. Pollari previously served as an assistant under CSC Head Coach Travis Brewster for one year at North Dakota in 2013-14, when the Fighting Hawks won a Big Sky conference championship. Pollari has also been an assistant at St. Mary's (DIII, MN), Minnesota State-Mankato and Northern State.

Traditionally, Wayne State has dominated the all-time series with Chadron State. CSC records show Wayne with a 36-4 lead all-time, with all four wins for CSC coming in between the 1985-86 and 1990-91 seasons. In recent years, Wayne State won 87-50 in 2021 and 84-71 in 2022, the only times the two schools have played since 2015.

The Schedule
After Saturday's home opener, CSC will head to Billings, Montana for a road game against Montana State Billings and a neutral site game against British Columbia's Simon Fraser University on November 15 and 16. 

The Eagles will have nonconference home games against Southwest Minnesota State (Wednesday, November 20 at 6 p.m.), York University (Monday, November 25 at 6 p.m.) and Nebraska-Kearney (Saturday, November 30 at 3 p.m.). The Nebraska-Kearney game will be part of a doubleheader where both the CSC women's and men's teams will take on the Lopers. 

Conference play opens at home on Thursday, December 5 against South Dakota Mines. In a change from previous years, the RMAC will play their conference games on Thursday and Saturday each week, rather than Friday and Saturday.

More RMAC schedule highlights include hosting preseason conference favorites Colorado Mesa on Saturday, January 25 and a home rivalry clash with Black Hills State on January 30.