CHICAGO - The 4-1 Loyola University Chicago women's basketball team travels to Eastern Illinois this Saturday (Nov. 23) for its second-to-last non-conference road game. Tip-off from Groniger Arena is set for 2 p.m. with the game streaming live on ESPN+. Rob Calhoun (play by play) and Lane Blickem (commentary) will call the action.

QUICK HITS

• Off to its best start in the Allison Guth era, Loyola Chicago heads to Charleston, Ill., for a non-conference matchup at EIU. 
• Saturday's game marks Loyola's third in-state foe it has faced up to this point. 
• The Ramblers are on a two-game win streak, having recently beaten SIUE and Valparaiso.
• Most recently, LUC took down Valpo, 70-62, after outscoring the Beacons, 12-8, in the first quarter and 27-14 in the second.
• Loyola's fantastic first half was aided by a blistering 64-percent clip from beyond the arc. The Ramblers ended the game shooting 47-percent from three, a season-high. Likewise, LUC's nine made threes tied its season-most.
• Naelle Bernard led on the stat sheet with a season-high 18 points and four rebounds while also dishing out four assists. The guard was 5-of-7 from the field, 4-of-5 from three-point range and a perfect 4-of-4 at the free throw line.
• Emma Theodorrson led Loyola on the glass with five boards. The Ramblers ended the night out-rebounding Valparaiso, 28-27. It was the second time this season the Maroon and Gold has beaten its foe on the glass.
• Kira Chivers totaled 11 points vs. Valpo after recording 14, a career-high, at SIUE this past Saturday. Additionally, her five assists were a game-high.
• Graduate student forward Sitori Tanin is just 30 points away from eclipsing 1,000 throughout her five-year career. She will be the 30th Rambler to join the 1,000-point club.
• Coming out of the gates hot, Loyola has outscored all but one of its opponents in the first quarter this season. SIUE and Loyola were tied, 10-10, at the end of the first 10 minutes.
• Following Saturday, Loyola returns home for an exciting matchup against Northwestern at home this coming Tuesday (Nov. 26).

RAMBLER BITES

• Five letterwinners return to the roster, including two starters. The Ramblers welcome 10 newcomers, including six freshman and four transfers.
• Head coach Allison Guth is in her third season at the helm of Loyola. 2024-25 is her ninth year as a head coach after spending the first six seasons at Yale.
• Loyola Chicago's nine-win improvement from 2022-23 to 2023-24 was the second best turnaround in the Atlantic 10.
• The Ramblers named returners Sitori Tanin, Thoranna Kika Hodge-Carr, and Kira Chivers team captains for the 2024-25 season.
• A trio of 2023-24 Ramblers inked professional contracts overseas this past summer: Emma Nolan (Bad Homburg, Germany), Sophia Nolan (Dillingen Diamonds, Germany), and Sam Galanopoulos (Esperides Kallitheas, Greece). There are now seven former Ramblers who have played pro basketball.

SCOUTING THE EASTERN ILLINOIS PANTHERS

• EIU was projected to finish third in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), according to the league's annual preseason coaches' poll.
• Head Coach Marqus McGlothan is in his first season guiding the Panthers.
• Eastern Illinois has played a difficult schedule thus far in 2024-25. It has the 18th-toughest schedule in D-I, and the toughest in the OVC, according to the NCAA as of Nov. 21.
• Most recently, EIU faced back-to-back Big Ten foes in No. 23 Illinois and Minnesota, respectively. 
• The Panthers were led by Macy McGlone's 19 points in the loss. Her 18.0 points per game ranks second-best in the OVC.

ALL-TIME AGAINST EASTERN ILLINOIS

• In a tightly contested saga, Loyola Chicago leads its all-time series with EIU, 11-10.
• The Maroon and Gold has won five of the last six meetings, with the Ramblers most recently overpowering EIU, 58-44, at home last season on Dec. 2, 2023.
• In the win, Alyssa Fisher scored a game-high 16 points while Thoranna Kika Hodge-Carr added 12 points and seven boards.
• Loyola fell, 83-73, the last time the two met on EIU's home floor on Nov. 20, 2022.
• The Maroon and Gold have scored 58 points or more in the past eight meetings with Eastern Illinois.
• The two have gone to overtime just once since the 2007 season - a 86-75 win for the 'Blers on Nov. 17, 2015, at EIU.

LAST TIME OUT
Loyola Chicago used its 64-percent clip from beyond the arc in the first half to secure a 70-62 win over Valparaiso Tuesday night inside Gentile Arena. With the win over their former Missouri Valley Conference foes, the Ramblers move to 4-1 overall.

ATLANTIC 10 PRESEASON POLL
The defending champion Richmond Spiders were voted as the Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball 2024-25 season favorite in the league's annual Preseason Poll. Saint Joseph's was chosen second in the poll with 211 points and four first place votes. After a record setting 2023-24 where they went 15-3 in the Atlantic 10 and won 23 games, George Mason, with 188 votes, rounded out the top-3.

RETURNING RAMBLERS

• Back for another season is graduate student Sitori Tanin, Loyola's 6-foot-2 force in the paint. Tanin racked up 45 blocks (1.5 per game) last season to lead the team and rank No. 4 in the A-10. She posted at least one block in 23 games, including a career-high five vs. Saint Joseph's on Jan. 31.
• Graduate student guard Thoranna Kika Hodge-Carr is ready to pick up where she left off in 2023-24. The Keflavik, Iceland, native averaged 5.6 points per game last season to rank fifth on the team. Likewise, she tallied 3.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game to rank third and fourth on the team, respectively.
• Kira Chivers, who averaged 19.0 minutes and 3.5 points per game to rank sixth and seventh on the team, respectively, is looking to make noise this season. The Chicago native made 33-of-96 attempts from the field for a 34-percent clip. Additionally, she was 19-of-46 (41-percent) from deep.
• Between Chivers, Tanin, and Hodge-Carr, Loyola Chicago returns 562 points.
• Also back and looking to take a step this season are Destiny Jackson and Audrey Deptula.

FRESH FACES

• Guth signed 10 newcomers to her 2024-25 roster this past offseason. In terms of freshman, Yasmyn Palmer, a 6-foot-2 forward from Southfield, Mich., will help the Maroon and Gold in the post. She earned All-Conference, All-Catholic, and Detroit Free Press All-Area accolades playing for Cranbrook Kingswood.
• Roisin Grandberry, who's originally from Arlington Heights, Ill., will also help in the paint as a 6-foot-3 forward. Believed to be Loyola's highest-rated recruit ever, Grandberry was tabbed No. 74 in the 2024 espnW HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings (No. 16 forward). Additionally, the freshman was ranked No. 6 in the Prep Girls Hoops Illinois class of 2024.
• Alexa Kinas, a 5-foot-8 guard, was a tri-sport student-athlete at Kaukauna High School (Wisconsin). The freshman racked up 20-plus All-Conference awards and 12 varsity letters playing basketball, golf, track, and cross country at Kaukauna.
• Coming from Werribee, Australia, Holly Dolny stands as a 5-foot-8 guard. Dolny played club basketball for Wyndham Basketball under Gerard Hillier in Werribee and competed with Recruiting Boost, an Australian travel team, before coming to Rogers Park.
• Two-time MHSAA DI State Champion Kendall Hendrix earned All-League honors and All-Academic plaudits at West Bloomfield (Michigan) before joining the Maroon and Gold. Hendrix was also named a 2024 McDonald's All American Games Nominee her senior season.
• Rounding out LUC's freshman class is Brooklyn Vaughn, a native of Maumee, Ohio. The 6-foot-0 forward was named to the DII All-Ohio First Team in 2022-23 and Second Team in 2023-24. Vaughn collected District 7 Player of the Year, TRAC Player of the Year, and TRAC First Team accolades at Central Catholic.
• As for Loyola's incoming transfers, Guth scouted the country for talent that would make an immediate impact on the team. Rosalie Mercille, who transferred to Loyola after playing for Monmouth last season, averaged 16.8 minutes, 2.0 rebounds, and 6.4 points per game in 2023-24.
• Emma Theodorsson is a junior guard/forward who played two seasons at Bucknell. She averaged 27.6 minutes, 4.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.3 blocks, 0.4 steals and 10.4 points per game through those two seasons. Theodorsson was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Week twice and raked in Patriot League All-Rookie Team honors after averaging 7.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game her freshman year.
• Jess Finney, a senior shooting guard who brings a wealth of skill to Loyola's wing, played one season at Washington and two at San Diego before joining the Ramblers. The Phoenix native was third on the team (San Diego) last season in 3-point percentage as she cashed in 32-percent (26-for-81) of her shots from beyond the arc.
• The Ramblers' final transfer is Naelle Bernard, a former standout guard from Duquesne. A native of Paris, Bernard started 23 of the 30 games she played during the 2023-24 season. Likewise, she averaged 9.4 points per game, shooting 39-percent from the field and 38-percent from 3-point range.
• In addition to student-athletes, Guth added Assistant Coach Mai-Loni Henson and Director of Basketball Operations, George Buaku, to the Ramblers' team.
• Henson previously coached one season at Colorado College, helping the Tigers achieve their first 20-win season in 40 years and an appearance in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship Game. 
• Buaku comes to Rogers Park after serving as the Director of Player Development and Basketball Analytics for Sixth Man San Diego since 2020, a nonprofit basketball organization. Buaku has also worked as an Associate Analyst with HD Intelligence, offering strategic insights through opponent scouting, postgame analysis, and transfer portal management.     

BUY TICKETS NOW!
Catch every women's basketball game at Gentile Arena with a season ticket package! Season ticket options include reserved courtside seating for $180/seat and general admission seating for $81/seat. Single-game tickets are $10/each.

Courtside season tickets are the only reserved seats available. Courtside seats are located across from the team benches in front of Sections 108 and 110. The online system will automatically place you in the best courtside seats available. Please contact the Loyola ticket office at (773) 508-9653 to discuss specific seat locations. Click here to purchase. 

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