RADFORD, Va.—The Radford women's basketball team will travel to Nashville, Tenn. to open the 2019-20 season at Vanderbilt on Friday night
(8pm ET/7pm CT) in the Historic Memorial Gymnasium.
The Highlanders are a fresh-faced team this year as head coach
Mike McGuire welcomed six newcomers and several new coaches. The freshman class consists of
Rachel LaLonde,
Diane Nicholson,
Taiye Johnson and
Kinsley Lewis. McGuire also brought in a pair of transfers in
Aiden Rainford and
Ariel Williams. On the bench you'll find
Steven Rhodes (Belmont Abbey),
Nikki Newman (James Madison) and
Chrystal Starling (The Masters School).
Radford's returning core of eight players is led by a trio of seniors in
Sydney Nunley,
Khiana Johnson, and
Jen Falconer. Nunley and Johnson were selected to the preseason Big South First and Second Teams respectively.
The Highlanders were selected to repeat as conference champions for the third consecutive season under McGuire and the 13th time in program history, receiving six first-place votes.
Radford's 2018-19 season will go down as one of the most historic seasons in program history. The Highlanders started off the season being selected as preseason favorites in the Big South coaches poll with
Destinee Walker and
Lydia Rivers selected as All-Big South preseason honorees. On December 8th, Radford's 57-44 victory over Virginia was their first since 1979 and the Highlanders' first win over an ACC team since defeating Wake Forest in the 2016-17 season. McGuire notched his 100th career win at Radford after downing Charleston Southern back on January 15th.
Skipping ahead to March, the Highlanders captured the Big South regular season championship over USC Upstate on Senior Day. They extended their winning streak to 13 games, which served as a new program record. A few days later, Radford successfully completed their historic regular-season with a come-from-behind win over Presbyterian. They finished the regular season with a 23-6 record and 17-1 in conference play, while establishing a school-record 15 game winning streak heading into the conference tournament. As conference postseason awards rolled in the Highlanders tabbed six total—Walker (First Team), Rivers (First Team), Nunley (Second Team), Johnson (Second Team), Falconer (All-Academic), and McGuire was named Coach of the Year for the third time in his career at Radford.
March 17th was the day of the Big South Women's Basketball Tournament Championship and Radford was slated to take on Campbell. The Highlanders would proceed to win the conference tournament for the first time since 1996 and for the 10th time in program history. With that victory, Radford punched their ticket to the big dance as a No. 14 seed. Rivers was named tourney MVP and Walker to the All-Tournament team.
Radford was pitted against the No. 3 seeded Maryland in the opening round of the tournament, which served as the Highlanders' first appearance since 1994. Other notable achievements for Radford were earning a No. 25 ranking in the final CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll, receiving the program's first Sportsmanship Award and APR National Recognition.
Vanderbilt is currently 1-0 after defeating Jacksonville State 88-66 at home. Head Coach Stephanie White enters her fourth season at the helm and welcomed a total of eight newcomers. In the season opener Brinae Alexander scored 20 points, Chelsie Hall tallied five assists and Autumn Newby picked up 13 boards.
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