The UW-Whitewater women’s basketball team started off the 2025-26 campaign with a 63-58 victory over Washington University in St. Louis.

With junior guard Bri McCurdy being the only returning starter from the 2024-25 Warhawks, there was some intrigue about who would fill out the starting five. Alongside McCurdy were junior guard Renee Rittmeyer, sophomore guard Ashley Schlabowske, freshman forward Brooke Stenklyft and junior forward Mia Gillis. Despite the new look starting five, expectations have remained the same for the Warhawks.

“We just wanted to come out and prove ourselves and getting this first win against a well-known, good team means everything,” McCurdy said. “Honestly it means that we had a good start to the season. So we’re excited.”

The first quarter was tight with both teams settling in and feeling each other out. UW-W was able to get some separation with a five point run halfway through the first quarter, which was their largest run of the first half, but WashU matched their pace with a few late baskets to keep the gap at five. 

The second quarter remained close, but with less scoring and more intense defense. Each team scored just ten points and Whitewater held a 29-24 lead at halftime. 

“We really put an emphasis on our defense and playing really, really hard,” Gillis said. “We upped the pressure.”

The Warhawks finished the first half with 12 forced turnovers, scoring five points off of those turnovers, and held the Bears to 9-for-25 shooting. Conversely, UW-W turned the ball over just four times and was 12-for-32 from the field.

UW-W started the third quarter with their best stretch of the night, going on an 8-0 run and sparking a quick timeout from WashU head coach Lisa Stone. Over the rest of the quarter, the Warhawks would keep that same pace and intensity. With 4:35 left in the third quarter, junior guard Camryn Nies hit a three-pointer to extend UW-W’s lead to 12 points, which would be their largest lead of the game.

From that point though, the Bears would put together runs of seven at the end of the third quarter and six in the middle of the fourth quarter to cut the Warhawks’ lead to two points with 3:41 left in the game. That is as close as it got, with McCurdy and Gillis combining to make eight free throws and two steals over the last few minutes to put the game on ice.

“I’m super proud of how we responded to the high level of play and intensity of the game,” head coach Keri Carollo said. “We didn’t let their runs rattle us to the point where it was detrimental to us.” 

As was the theme throughout the game, the Warhawks played aggressively on defense, making the Bears earn every single dribble. UW-W finished the day with 20 forced turnovers and 15 points off of those turnovers, with McCurdy leading the way recording three steals.

“Forcing all of those pressures is like winning the game for us,” McCurdy said. “Because we have such a deep bench we can apply that pressure the whole game.”

Carollo described McCurdy as a fighter, someone who plays the game with a “no-quit mentality” and makes the plays that need to be made. While McCurdy is all over the floor defensively, almost in a controlled chaotic manner, she’s a calming presence for a younger team.

“She plays so gritty and hard-nosed,” Carollo said. “She’s always going to give you her best effort and knock down the big shots. She’s just so reliable and someone the team can count on.”

Offensively, as expected, the scoring was distributed across the entire team. Gillis, McCurdy and Nies all scored double digits with five other players scoring at least one basket. The biggest difference came from the bench, as WashU’s bench didn’t score a single point. Whitewater’s bench scored 20.

“When you scout us, you just don’t really know who is going to be the person that night,” Carollo said. “The teams that we play against won’t be able to just key in on one or two people which is something that we as a group are really going to take a lot of pride in.”

Gillis led the Warhawks in points scored with 18, which is also her career high. She shot 8-for-15 from the field and made two of her three free throws. Where Gillis found the most success was when she simply just trusted herself to make the shot.

“I shot without really thinking, just shoot first, which really helped in not overthinking my shot.” Gillis said. “We stuck together, ran our offense, and found our shots within the offense.”

Going into this game, Carollo and the Warhawks knew that they weren’t going to get a lot of looks around the rim so they emphasized shooting the high post and corner shots. While it’s one thing to have a gameplan, it’s another to have the team completely buy in and trust that gameplan.

“The best part about Mia, and all of our players, is that they trust us. They’ll look for those opportunities to score and they’ll find them,” Carollo said. “And [Mia] did that. She knocked those shots down. I’m super happy for her. She deserves it and she worked really hard this summer.”

UW-Whitewater returns to action Nov. 15-16 for the Illinois Wesleyan Tournament, where they will take on Millikin University and Illinois Wesleyan, respectively. Carollo described the teams as having two different styles of play.

“It’s more of what we’ll see in our conference,” Carollo said. “It’s good for us to play teams that do all different kinds of things.”

As for the players, they look to continue sending the same message that they’ve sent all off-season and in the season opener.

“We’re looking to prove our point again,” McCurdy said. “We’re looking to come out with a bang and start our season off great.”