DAYTON - The University of Dayton women's basketball program will host Mercyhurst University Thursday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. at UD Arena in the home opener. 

SCOUTING THE FLYERS 
Dayton is coming off a tough road loss at Illinois State Monday to start the season and sits at 0-1 on the year. The Flyers were 12-5 at home last season and looking to earn their first win of 2025-26 in front of their home crowd. 

Head coach Tamika Williams-Jeter finished her fourth season in charge of her hometown Flyers, coming over after a year at Wittenberg. She has assistant coaching stops at Kansas, Kentucky, Penn State, and Ohio State. 

The Flyers are averaging 76.0 points per game and giving up 87.0 points to opponents. Dayton is shooting 52.6 percent overall, 41.2 percent from three-point range, and 60.0 percent from the free throw line. UD faces a -13.0 rebounding margin as well. 

Senior Nayo Lear is coming off a career-high 22 points and 3-of-5 from three in the season opener while junior Fatima Ibrahim, sophomore Olivia Leung, and sophomore Molly O'Riordan are all averaging double digits scoring. 

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
MERCYHURST
Mercyhurst continues its season looking to improve from an overall record of 9-18 last year and a Northeast Conference record of 6-10. The Lakers are 0-1 after falling to No. 23 Michigan State in the season opener Tuesday. 

Head coach Erin Mills-Reid is entering her first season at Mercyhurst with over 15 years of experience across Division I programs. 

As a team, Mercyhurst averaged 65.0 points per game last season while giving up 68.1 points to their opponents. The Lakers shot 22.4 percent from the field, 6.7 percent from deep, and 13.4 percent from the stripe.

The Lakers lost a key contributor from last season in Bailey Kuhns. She was placed on All-NEC First Team, the second year she received all-conference honors. Kuhns led the team in scoring last season with 19.9 points per game. However, they do return senior guard Jenna Van Schaik who played a major role in Mercyhurst's season last year. Van Schaik led the team in assists averaging 3.0 assists per game with 79 total assists throughout the season. 

LAST TIME OUT
Dayton opened the year in a tough environment at Illinois State and suffered an 87-76 loss to the Redbirds. Senior Nayo Lear led the way with 22 points while Fatima Ibrahim was 5-for-5 and had a team-high seven rebounds in her UD debut.

Mercyhurst traveled to Breslin Event Center to face No. 23 Michigan State, which led to a heavy loss 39-125 for the Lakers. Mercyhurst totaled 18 rebounds and was 90 percent of free throws made. Lena Walz and Cici Hernandez led the team in scoring, with nine points each. 

SERIES HISTORY
This is the first meeting between the two programs. 

FOLLOW #UDWBB ON SOCIAL
Follow the Flyers on X @DaytonWBB; on Instagram DaytonWBB; and on Facebook at Dayton Women's Basketball.