Gonzaga Women’s Basketball: Non-Conference Schedule Breakdown Part 1

The season officially begins on Tuesday, November 5th for this Gonzaga squad so it’s about time we start taking a bird’s eye view towards the upcoming opposition. I’m going to cover more of the objective items for these schools like their squad turnover, conference preseason predictions, and the like. Each team will be listed with regards to their corresponding date on the calendar. There are 11 non-conference games this year and I’ll be reviewing the first six today with the following five coming later on.

Montana: November 5th – Home

As with last year, Gonzaga will kick off their season against the Montana Lady Griz, but this time the gang with start off at home. Montana had a fairly successful ‘23-24 season as they finished with a final record of 23-10 (13-5), met their Big Sky preseason prediction of finishing third, and made the NIT where they were knocked out in the second round by North Dakota State.

The team has been on the up since hiring Brian Holsinger after the ‘21-22 season as last year’s performance was their best since the ‘14-15 season and the team looks primed to continue on this trend. They have been selected to finish third again in the Big Sky Preseason Coaches and Media Poll predictions and have one player, 6’2” senior forward Dani Bartsch (7.9 PPG, 10.4 RPG, 2.5 APG), selected to the preseason All-Big Sky team. They also bring back the promising 5’9” guard, Mack Konig (11.6 PPF, 2.8 APG), in addition to the incoming transfer of 6’0” redshirt senior guard Tyler McCliment-Call (stats below) who is originally from Spokane and went to University HS.

However, this team lost quite a bit of experience from last year’s squad as they saw their first, second, and fourth highest scorers graduate while also losing a promising sophomore guard, Macey Huard, to the transfer portal so there are some unknowns about where the replacements will come from this season.

The Montana school website has some very active journalists and I would highly recommend checking out their season preview of the Lady Griz if you have any interest in the Intermountain West sports scene. Check it here.

Transfers Out

Libby Stump, 5’8, G, So. (4.2 PPG) → Western Washington

Macey Huard, 6’2, G, Fr. (7.4 PPG) → Oklahoma State

Transfers In

Tyler McCliment-Call, 6′, G, Sr. (8.4 PPG, 4.9 RPG) SFA → Idaho → Montana

Izzi Zingaro, 6’4, F, Jr. (3.2 PPG) Iowa State → Montana

Aby Shubert, 5’8, G, Fr. (1.1 PPG) Xavier → Montana

Stanford; November 10th – Away

Now in the ACC, Stanford have been predicted to finish 7th in the preseason poll with 1,214 votes, including one first place vote. The team has no players selected to either the preseason All-ACC Team or the newcomer watch list.

Stanford is in a similar situation to Gonzaga this year with regards to turnover having lost their longtime, legendary coach to retirement, Cameron Brink to the WNBA, and two other key players from the ‘23-24 squad, Kiki Iriafen to the portal and Hannah Jump to graduation. Those three players along represented 61% of the team’s scoring from last year so this might be a year for the Zags to earn another victory in what has become an annual rivalry game. On the plus side though, the team did bring in Santa Clara’s Tess Heal to take over the point guard position as well as picking up a talented young player in Mary Ashley Stevenson from Purdue.

This offseason, the Cardinal, like Gonzaga in the previous season, took an international tour, but instead of the lovely Croatian beaches, Stanford visited Italy making stops at Rome, Siena, Florence and Venice. I hope they stopped by to see Kyle Wiltjer ply his craft while they were in Venice. This link documents their adventure which looks like it was an experience of a lifetime.

Transfers Out

Kiki Iriafen, 6’3, F, Jr. (19.4 PPG, 11 RPG) → USC

Transfers In

Mary Ashley Stevenson, 6’2, F, Fr. (9.7 PPG, 5.1 RPG) Purdue → Stanford

Tess Heal, 5’10, G, So. (19.5 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 4.9 APG) Santa Clara → Stanford

California: November 14th – Home

The Zags will be taking on two former Pac-12 schools that now call the ACC home in back-back matchups. After finishing 8th in their conference, the Golden Bears have been predicted to finish 14th in their inaugural ACC season with 546 votes. As with Stanford, there are no players selected to either the preseason All-ACC Team or the newcomer watch list.

Cal is bringing a very old squad into this campaign with 7 seniors and bring back some talented players with the likes of 6’3” forward Marta Suarez (11.9 PPG, 6.9 RPG), 5’1” guard Ioanna Krimili (13.0 PPG, 2.3 APG), and the arrival of redshirt senior Natalia Ackerman from Cal Poly (stats below). Coach Charmin Smith will be looking for her team to continue the incremental gains seen since her before the ‘19-20 campaign as last season marked the teams first winning record in her time at the helm.

While Cal will likely get trounced in the ACC, it will be interesting to watch them in the non-conference slate as they have a weak appearing schedule that features the likes of Saint Mary’s, Idaho State, San Jose State, and Grambling. Gonzaga should be their first real taste of competition in the early part of the season and they will be looking to avenge their 8-point loss to the Bulldogs last season, but the test will be harder as they will travel to Spokane and face a team that averaged nearly 5,500 fans per match across the ‘23-24 season.

Transfers Away

Ornela Muca, 5’7, G, Sr. (1.1 ppg) → Pepperdine

Kemery Martin, 6′, G, Jr. (6.7 Pts, 2.5 Reb) → BYU

Transfers In

Gisella Maul, 5’11, G, Fr. (2.3 PPG) Texas → Cal

Kayla Williams, 5’7, G, Sr. (2.6 PPG) USC → Cal

Jayda Noble, 5’11, G, Jr. (3.3 PPG, 4.1 RPG) UW → Cal

Natalia Ackerman, 6’1, F, Sr. (12 PPG, 8.9 RPG) Cal Poly → Cal

Check back in the next couple days to read part 2!