POUGHKEEPSIE, New York - The Marist women's basketball team opens the 2022-23 season on Monday night, when the Red Foxes host Villanova at 7 p.m.

The Villanova game is the first of three the Red Foxes will play this week. Marist will then host Penn on Thursday at 7 p.m., and will travel to Green Bay for a 2 p.m. contest on Saturday.
 

Preview

The Red Foxes were selected to finish tied for sixth in the MAAC preseason coaches' poll. They are tied with Rider at 62 votes.

The Red Foxes are returning eight players from last year's team, which include a pair of Third Team Preseason All-MAAC honorees in Kiara Fisher and Zaria Shazer. Fisher averaged 12.6 points per game and 3.3 rebounds per game for her first season as a Red Fox. Her season was cut short due to injury but she still managed to be third on the team in steals and started in 13 of the 15 games she played in last season. Shazer appeared in 28 of the 29 games played last season starting 27. She averaged 9.9 points per game and led the team in rebounds with 7.0 per game. She also averaged 1.4 blocks per game leading to 39 blocks on the season. Marist is also returning graduate student Kendall Krick (7.6 ppg in 2021-22), and senior Julianna Bonilla (3.3 ppg in 2021-22) who both found themselves in the rotation both appearing in 27 games.

Two transfers will be making their Marist debut this season in Maeve Donnelly (University of Hawaii) and Samantha Chadwick (Central Connecticut State). Donnelly is expected to make an immediate impact in the middle. More returners that Coach Giorgis will be looking to make an impact include senior forward Samantha Bailey, junior forward Erin Fox, and sophomore forward Catie Cunningham.

This will be Coach Giorgis' last season as the Red Foxes head coach before associate head coach Erin Doughty takes the head coaching position on April 1, 2023.

"I am excited to see what this final season brings," Giorgis said. "We have a hungry group who wants to show we are better than our results from last year. We have a solid group of experienced veterans to go with some talented new faces. We hope to continue building on our strong defense from last year while making big improvements on the offensive end. This group has done a great job working on building chemistry over the summer and fall and are ready to attack a strong non-conference schedule along with a very talented MAAC."
 

Staff

Giorgis is entering his 21st and final season as head coach of the Red Foxes in the 2022-23 season. In addition, Erin Doughty is entering her 18th season with the team and her fifth as Associate Head Coach. The Red Foxes Assistant Coaches include Maggie Gallagher and Kiah Gillespe. Gallagher is in her seventh season, and this will be Gillespe's first season with the Red Foxes. Keylantra Langley is in her first season with the Red Foxes as the Director of Operations. 
 

Schedule

Marist's non-conference schedule will consist of nine games, three home and six away.

The Red foxes will play opponents from seven different conferences: Big East (Villanova, home, Nov. 7), Ivy League (UPenn, home, Nov. 10; Columbia, away, Dec. 1), Horizon (Green Bay, away, Nov. 12), Ohio Valley (Eastern Kentucky, away, Nov. 18), ASUN (North Florida, away, Nov. 19), Patriot (Lafayette, home, Nov. 27; American, away, Dec. 10) and American East (Vermont, away, Dec. 4).

Marist will play 20 MAAC games including MAAC newcomer Mount St. Mary's. The Red Foxes will play each team twice, one home and one away, and MAAC play will begin away at Niagra on Saturday, December 17.

This year's MAAC Championships will once again be held in Atlantic City, New Jersey from March 7-11.