Women's Basketball
Wednesday, November 12, 2025 / Thursday, November 13, 2025
Rider Broncs (1-0, 0-0 MAAC) vs. Boston College Eagles (2-1, 0-0 ACC) / Stonehill Skyhawks (1-1, 0-0 NEC)
Location: Chestnut Hill, MA / Easton, MA
Tip: 6:00 pm
Live Video: ACCNX / NEC Front Row
Live Stats: BCEagles.com / StonehillSkyhawks.com
Twitter: @RiderWBB
 
What You Need To Know
- Wednesday's game will be broadcast live on ACCNX, with Thursday's game moving to NEC Front Row.
 
- The Broncs were picked to finish 13^th by the league's coaches in the preseason poll. The Broncs will have to deal with the loss of four starters from last year's team, including the loss of 80.4% of the team's scoring from a season ago.
 
- Last Thursday's game was the first for Rider under new Head Coach Jackie Hartzell. Hartzell comes to Lawrenceville from Arcadia University, where she posted a 54-26 record and was named the MAC Coach of the Year for the 2024-25 season. Prior to her time at Arcadia, Hartzell produced a 185-57 record in eight seasons at University of the Sciences, highlighted by a trip to the NCAA Division II Sweet 16 in 2018, after which she was named the HERO Sports Women's Basketball Division II National Coach of the Year. Rider's sixth coach in the Division I Era, the previous five coaches were 2-3 in their debuts with Eldon Price topping Saint Francis 100-55 and Lynn Milligan defeating Monmouth 59-46 for the Broncs' victories. Hartzell added to the win column with the Broncs topping Lafayette, 65-58, to open the season.
 
- Aliya McIver (White Plains, NY/White Plains) did a little bit of everything against FDU, setting then career-highs in points (9), rebounds (11), and assists (8). The sophomore had five points, six rebounds, and five assists in the second half that saw both teams score 31 points. She then had a career game in the season finale last year at Niagara. In her final game as a sophomore, McIver set career highs with 11 points and 12 rebounds for her first career double-double, and Rider's lone double-double of the 2024-25 season. McIver ranked in the top ten in the MAAC in both assists and assist to turnover ratio last season. The now-junior picked up where she left off to start the year, tying her career high with 11 points, to go along with eight rebounds in the season-opening victory.
 
- Emmy Roach (Littlehampton, Australia/Heathfield) was thrust into extended minutes due to injury last season and responded, with the then-freshman setting a career-high with 10 points against Saint Peter's, then tying her career best with six rebounds in two-straight games earlier last season.
 
- The Broncs roster is one of the most unique in the country, featuring zero seniors and just one graduate student in transfer Kristina Ekofo (Brussels, Belgium/ Établissement Des Soeurs De Notre Dame[North Dakota State University/Northeastern Oklahoma A&M])), who joins the Broncs following two seasons each at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M and North Dakota State University and has impressed thus far in the preseason. Despite the youth movement, the Broncs do have a veteran presence with incoming transfer junior Deb Okechukwu (Washington, DC/Archbishop Carroll[Harcum CC/CCBC Essex]) following a season at both CCBC - Essex and Harcum CC, and returners McIver and Kaylan Deveney (Medford, NJ/Life Center Academy), who have both played over 50 games in Cranberry and Gray. The Broncs also feature one of the most unique schedules in the country, playing three games in four days that are all true road contests and not a part of an MTE, when the Broncs visit Boston College, Stonehill, and Bryant.
 
- Rider's incoming freshman class features a pair of Spaniards in Aina Perez Mesquida (Manacor, Spain/IES CTEIB) and Claudia Lazaro-Carrasco (Madrid, Spain/Ortega y Gasset). Perez Mesquida is projected to be in the starting lineup after winning a gold medal at the Balearic U16 Championships, competing as a member of the Spanish National U17 3x3 Team, and being a part of the 2023-24 Spanish Junior Club Championship Team. Lazaro-Carrasco spent the last three years playing for the Torrelondes Team in the Junior Special Gold Category and was the Player of the Community for Madrid Team in 2021 and 23.
 
- The freshman class is rounded out by a pair of domestic products, Daniya Brown (Fairfax, VA/Bishop O'Connell) and Alena Cofield (Langhorne, PA/Neshaminy). Brown, 5-7 guard from Fairfax, VA was a Second-Team All-WCAC selection, who averaged 14 points and four steals as a senior at Bishop O'Connell High School. Cofield was a one-time First-Team SOL and one time Second-Team SOL honoree who earned Division MVP honors as a member of the SOL Division Championship team.
 
- Rider's Ekofo and former Rider student-athlete and current Skyhawk Molly Lynch are two of just roughly 50 NCAA Division I players who began their collegiate careers in the 2020-21 season. Lynch was a four-year player for the Broncs before transferring to Stonehill, where she missed the 2024-25 season due to injury.
 
- The Broncs got strong debuts from a pair of newcomers in big 6-1 forward Ekofo, who led all scorers with 19 points to go along with nine rebounds in her Rider debut as a graduate student, and short 5-3 guard Cofield, who added 14 points, including going 3-for-6 from beyond the arc, and six rebounds in her first collegiate action.
 
- Boston College won the only prior meeting between the programs, winning the championship game of the Hawk Classic at Hagan Arena on the campus of Saint Joseph's back in 2018. The Eagles jumped out to a 61-19 halftime lead behind a 31-4 second quarter in that game.
 
- The Eagles are off to a 2-1 start to the season, falling on opening day to Holy Cross by one, before bouncing back to beat New Hampshire and UMass Lowell. Teionni Mcdaniel leads the Boston College offense at 15.0 points per game on the young season with Lily Carmody second on the squad at 14.0 points per contest.
 
- In the lone prior meeting between the two programs, the Broncs topped the Skyhawks, 65-53, last season after erasing an 11-point lead early in the fourth quarter, using a 12-0 run started by a Jocelyn Chavez three to take the lead, before a late 10-0 Rider run secured the victory.

-  The Skyhawks are off to a 1-1 start to the season, falling at Georgetown to open the year, before bouncing back to beat fellow MAAC foe, Niagara. Reece Roggenburk leads the Skyhawks offense at 15.0 points per game.