2022-23 CU Women's Basketball Preview

Women's Basketball | 11/7/2022 10:55:00 AM

Last year's Clarkson University Women's Basketball team was the epitome of a youth movement, as eight of the 12 student-athletes were first-year collegians, and while this year's team will be similarly young, the Golden Knights will have an extra year of experience heading into the 2022-23 season.

Guided by ninth-year head coach Maureen Webster and second-year assistant Carly Assimon, the Golden Knights will have just two seniors as well as seven returning sophomores and five newcomers. The Green and Gold will open the 2022-23 campaign on Tuesday when the team travels to face Plattsburgh State.

Seniors Mariah Benavides and Elaina Porter have seen plenty of playing time over the course of their collegiate careers and look to guide the young team. Benavides generally runs the point and ranked second on the team in assists a year ago while also leading the team in 3-point field goals made (41), averaging 9.1 points per contest. Porter's mid-range game helped her average 7.6 points per contest during her junior year, third on the team, while also placing third in rebounds with 4.9 rpg.

The sophomore class had some initial growing pains but close to the end of the first semester the team had a statement game with a narrow loss against top-25 ranked St. John Fisher, and the first-year class took significant strides from that point forward. Cassidy Dumont led the team in scoring at 9.6 points per game, doing most of her damage while coming off the bench. Her 29-point effort against Plattsburgh State in early January was the beginning of a run where she averaged better than 12 points per contest in the second semester. Classmate Lauryn Withrow returned from some early injurie setbacks to become a solid scorer as well in the second semester, as she produced nine points per game over the last 10 games of the season. Ruthie Nolan, another first-year collegian, also averaged 5.9 points and 5.7 rebounds per game as well dishing out a team-best 51 assists, but she will miss her sophomore year due to injury.

Several other freshmen from a season ago made an impact coming off the bench. Veronica Tache played in 21 games and averaged 11 minutes per contest as a back-up point guard, while Likhita Chanda saw time in 11 contests around injuries and was fourth on the team in 3-pointers made. Kailey Johnson and Grace Towler also spelled the guards in the backcourt, playing in 13 games and 9 games, respectively.

Clarkson has five newcomers to the team, including sophomore Lexi Huiatt and freshmen Raelin Burns, Bella Doyle, Laney Tiernan, and Isabelle Vaccaro. Doyle and Tiernan will add some much needed depth at the forward position, while Huiatt, Burns, and Vaccaro contribute to the team's already enviable stable of guards.

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