BEREA, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team led by veteran head coach Cheri Harrer is ready to tip off the 2024-25 season.
 
Entering her 35th season as head coach, Coach Harrer returns 17 letterwinners, three All-Ohio Athletic Conference players, and seven Academic All-OAC selections from last year's OAC Regular Season Champion and NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 qualifying squad that finished with an overall record of 22-7 and a 16-2 record in the OAC. 
 
Senior All-OAC selections Bella Vaillant (Perrysburg), Caely Ressler (Napoleon), and Emily Irwin (Pickerington/Pataskala Watkins Memorial) return as the leaders of the Brown and Gold this season.
 
Vaillant, a D3hoops.com All-Region 7 first-team honoree a year ago, comes off the 2023-24 season where she started all 29 games for the Yellow Jackets and scored a team-high 291 points for an average of 10 points per game. She also dominated the boards as she led the team and was second in the conference with a career-high 228 rebounds averaging 7.9 per game. Vaillant added a career-high 29 assists and recorded 15 steals and a career-best 11 blocks on the defensive side of the ball earning her a spot on the All-OAC first team. She earned one OAC Player of the Week award and one D3hoops.com Team of the Week selection last year.
 
Ressler, an Academic All-OAC selection, also comes off a career season where she earned second-team All-OAC honors after starting in all 29 games totaling 270 points with an average of 9.3 per game. She also averaged 7.0 rebounds per game and grabbed a total of 204 last season including 153 defensive rebounds: a team-best. Ressler led the team in steals with a career-high 38 takeaways, added 12 blocks, and assisted a career-high 43 times. Last year, she was named to the OAC All-Tournament Team, was an OAC Player of the Week honoree, and was named the Most Valuable Player of the Chuck Resler Tournament in Rochester, New York.
 
Irwin, an All-OAC honorable mention and an Academic All-OAC honoree, returns after leading BW in threes last year with a career-best 49 shooting 33.7% from beyond the arc through all of her 29 starts. She also led the team and was eighth in the conference in assists with a career-best 65. Irwin was third on the team in scoring with 268 points averaging 9.2 a game and recorded a career-best 62 rebounds last season. Defensively, she tallied 32 steals and four blocks. Irwin was also named to the Chuck Resler All-Tournament team and is a College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honoree.
 
Junior Academic All-OAC guard/forward Alyssa Miller (New Philadelphia) and junior guard Kaycie Badylak (Cincinnati/Archbishop McNicholas) round out Coach Harrer's returning starters. Miller started all 29 games where she scored 141 points, grabbed 125 boards, and dished out 41 assists. Defensively, she led the team and the OAC in blocks with 43 and added 17 steals. Badylak appeared in all 29 games and made 24 starts as she recorded career-highs in points with 140, in rebounds with 58, and in assists with 22. She can also shoot the three ball with 31 threes a year ago and a 32.3% shooting percentage from deep.
 
The depth in the BW back court is anchored by Academic All-OAC senior Alek Johnson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mars Area), Academic All-OAC junior Leah Riley (Cincinnati/Sycamore), and sophomore Maddie Ebbert (Lake Orion, Mich.) who each averaged 10 minutes a game last season. In 2023-24, Johnson appeared in 28 games and scored a career-high 64 points with 47 rebounds, and 20 assists. Riley also appeared in 28 games where she scored a career-high 162 points including 33 threes along with 45 assists and 18 steals. Ebbert scored 29 points and grabbed 60 rebounds through 28 games in her freshman season.
 
Junior Academic All-OAC guard Ali Menendez (Hudson) will also be a leader in the backcourt along with an experienced group of sophomores who saw a lot of time including Kayla Jones (Grove City), Ava Wilkerson (West Mansfield/Marysville), Laura McCoy (Newton Falls/Garrettsville Garfield), and Taylor Bass (Strongsville). 
 
Senior Sadie Arend (Carey), Academic All-OAC junior Brooke Thompson (Maineville/Little Miami), and sophomores Rylee Bennett (New Franklin/Archbishop Hoban) and Eily Badertscher (Wooster) round out the returning letterwinners from last season's squad and will hold down the frontcourt for Coach Harrer. Arend enters her final season after playing in 19 games last year where she scored 26 points and had 13 rebounds. Thompson, an Academic All-OAC honoree, totaled five rebounds, three points, and a block in eight games. Bennett scored 14 points in 2023-24 along with grabbing six rebounds and three steals. Badertscher finished with 11 points, four rebounds and one steal a season ago.
 
The Yellow Jackets' 2024-25 season begins Friday, November 8 and Saturday, November 11 as they travel to Washington, Pennsylvania to compete in the Hampton Inn by Hilton Women's Basketball Tipoff. BW opens the tournament against the host Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) College on Friday night at 8 p.m. and closes the weekend against Saint Vincent (Pa.) College at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Salvitti Family Gymnasium.