OMAHA, Neb. – The Omaha women's basketball program opens the 2019-20 regular season against in-state foe Creighton Tuesday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. inside Baxter Arena.
QUICK HITS
• Omaha opens the season for the second-straight year inside Baxter Arena.
• The Mavericks are led by head coach
Brittany Lange, who enters her seventh season at the helm of the program.
• Omaha returns all five starters from last season and eight total letterwinners.
• The team welcomes seven newcomers to the 2019-20 squad that includes five freshmen and two junior transfers.
•
Rayanna Carter returns for her senior campaign as the team's leading scorer from a season ago.
•
Mariah Murdie earned All-Summit Newcomer Team honors in her freshman season. The Meriden, Kan., native returns for her sophomore campaign.
• Omaha and Creighton square off for the 30th time.
• The Mavericks hold a 16-13 advantage over the Bluejays.
• In the Division I era, Omaha is 0-5 against Creighton.
• The Mavericks are coming off an 88-41 win on Oct. 30 against Division III Lakeland College in an exhibition.
SCOUTING CREIGHTON
The Bluejays enter the season after playing Concordia to an 85-83 double-overtime on Oct. 22. In that game, Jaylyn Agnew scored 17 points and had 19 rebounds while Olivia Elger notched 21 points.
Agnew returns as the team's leading-returning scorer as she averaged 11.8 points and a team-best 6.6 rebounds per game in 2018-19. Head coach Jim Flanery is in his 18th season at Creighton with a 327-220 record. The team finished 15-16 last season with an 8-10 record in the BIG EAST for sixth place. Creighton returns nine letterwinners and lost four to graduation. The Bluejays return three of their five starters.
NEW NUMBER, SAME MARIAH
Sophomore
Mariah Murdie is coming off a strong freshman season where she garnered Summit League All-Newcomer honors.
The Meriden, Kan., native notched 8.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists per contest last season. This season, Murdie makes the jersey switch from No. 35 to No. 33.
In Summit League play last year, Murdie's numbers were 9.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. The 6-3 sophomore shot 48% from the field. Her biggest performance was an 11-point, 18-rebound effort against Purdue Fort Wayne on Jan. 24, 2019. The 18 rebounds marked a Division I-era record and tie for eighth all-time in program history.
INTERNATIONAL MAVERICKS
Omaha's 2019-20 roster features student-athletes from four different countries. The team has two Australians in
Sophie Johnston and
Ella Ogier.
Juliana Chagas hails from Brazil while
Elena Pilakouta comes from Cyprus.
This season, Mikalea Ekdahl adds the fourth different country to the Mavericks' roster, being from Sweden. In total, the team has five international players.
THE VOICE OF OMAHA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
This season, Jon Schriner steps into the role of play-by-play announcer for Omaha women's basketball following Donny Baarn's move to Omaha hockey play-by-play.
Fans can listen to Schriner's calls on 1180 Zone 2 or 1290 KOIL.
LOOKING AHEAD
Omaha looks ahead to a span of five games in nine days to get in the full swing of its non-conference slate. The Mavericks travel to Kansas State Friday, Nov. 8, followed by a Nov. 11 home game against Peru State. Two days later, the team hits the road and plays Kansas on Nov. 13.
