Sy Bean

Veteran Lutes Aim for Big Finish in 2024-2025

By Mark Albanese, Director of Sports Communication

The Pacific Lutheran University women’s basketball team is looking to make waves this season, returning a veteran squad that includes four starters from last year’s team.

Last year, the Lutes finished with an 11-14 overall record and a 3-13 mark in conference play. PLU had a tremendous non-conference slate, winning eight of its nine games outside the league, including a 50-47 road victory over Texas Lutheran University that saw the Lutes shatter a school record with 14 made threes. The Lutes would end the year with 156 total three-pointers, setting a program record that stood since the 1998-1999 campaign.

You can’t overstate what experience in the same system means. We’re now entering year three with a lot of players who are running the system, so there’s just a level of understanding and IQ that is blooming and it’s really fun and exciting.

said third-year Head Coach Lee Aduddell

We’re fortunate enough to have 12 returners and seven seniors and every one of those seniors has played impact minutes. We’re really lucky to have that and have extremely high expectations of them because they know our standards. They’ve built everything and our expectations are through the roof. What we mean by that is we expect to do the work to put us in the place to have the opportunity to be successful on the court.

2024-2025 Roster

Leading the way for the Lutes is 2023 NWC Rookie of the Year Sydney Reisner. The junior from Burlington, Washington led the team in scoring last winter, dropping 11.3 points per game. Reisner was a threat from anywhere on the court, draining a team-best 40 threes on the year and shooting 38.8 percent from beyond the arc.

“We want Sydney to be Sydney. We know what we’re going to get from her because she has been consistent from the very first time she stepped foot on the floor. She’s doing the things she always does, but has worked really hard to make herself into a three-level scorer. She’s been working on her mid-range all summer. She’s as consistent as they come as a leader and a player and we just want to get out of the way and allow her to do that.”

Ashley Akamine joins Reisner as one of two returning Lutes that started every game last season. The senior from Lahaina, Hawaii averaged 9.2 ppg and a team-high 5.0 rebounds per game last winter along with a team-best 14 blocks.

Ashley’s a tremendous athlete whose potential has still not been touched. She’s somebody who we try really hard to get her the right touches in the right spots because she’s just that talented. We believe that she’s maybe the most talented player in our league and we’ve done something offensively to allow her to have more space and more opportunities to score at the rim which is what she does better than anything. She’s an incredible kid and teammate and we have high expectations for what she can do this year.

Brandie Tobin is another impact senior who started all but one game last season. The Ewa Beach, Hawaii native averaged 4.0 ppg and 4.8 rpg last year while leading the team in both assists (86) and steals (38).

“Brandie’s kind of your point/forward— that kind of LeBron James-type who has really grown into being a great point guard. Obviously her physicality at that position is something that’s rare in our league and she’s incredibly coachable and helps us run our offense in a way that allows us to be successful.”

Raylie Wardenaar started in 21 games last year and was third on the team In threes, draining 31. The senior from Royal City, Washington chipped in 5.9 ppg and shot 33.3 percent from three-point range.

“Raylie’s a really talented scorer who continues to find those opportunities in ways that are just special. She’s a unique scorer who can do it in various ways that not many people can do."

Kasidy Javernick looks to take the next step this season. The senior from Tualatin, Oregon averaged 15 minutes per game last year but made a big impact down the stretch, starting the final four games of the season and averaged 9.0 ppg over the final six conference games of 2023-2024.

“Kasidy at the end of last year was surging and she’s continued that trajectory. She’s somebody who as a sophomore missed her entire season for injury and as a junior missed some of the season. But she’s catapulted herself into being to a major impact player and a leader on the team.”

Toledo, Washington’s Stacie Spahr returns for her senior campaign and will look to fill the void left by Ava Edmonds who graduated last spring and was the team’s second leading scorer. A center, Spahr played in all 25 games last season, making six starts.

“Stacie’s been incredibly impressive in the preseason. She’s somebody who’s come into her own. She’s in year three of running our system and she is playing like it and is a vocal leader and a leader on the boards.”

Buckley, Washington product Taylor Schmidtke was a spark off the bench last season as a junior, coming off the bench all 25 games last year and contributing 17.2 minutes per game.

“Taylor is an all-star. She’s been our consistent sixth person and it’s because she’s so consistent and we trust her. She’s somebody who can give you high scoring nights, but on an average night, we know that she’s going to defend well and she’s going to provide rebounds and do all the right things.”

PLU’s fifth senior is Jaida Wood. The Port Angeles, Washington native played in 22 games last season and provides a little bit of everything for the team.

“Jaida is the quintessential teammate and hustle player. You can always find minutes for somebody who plays as hard as she does. She is sacrificial and will play any position on the floor in order to help us win and because of that she continuously finds opportunities for herself.”

A two-sport athlete, Shaela Allen-Greggs will add depth to the center position in her second season as a Lute. Allen-Greggs will be missing the first few games of the year as she is a key member of the PLU volleyball team that begins the postseason next weekend. The Yakima, Washington native appeared in 12 games last year, providing some muscle in the paint. That included hauling in six offensive rebounds and nine total rebounds in a tough 58-55 setback to Lewis & Clark College in January.

Emi Wada is one of seven returners to play in every game last season. The junior from Aiea, Hawaii averaged 13.8 minutes per game on the floor.

Joining the returning Lutes is three first-years in Ava Bright, Brooke Samura, and Kate Wooten and one Division I transfer in Madison Moles.

This is the best freshmen class that we have brought in. They are absolutely challenging our upperclassmen to be great in their roles.

Bright joins the Lutes from nearby White River High School— the same program that produced Taylor Schmidtke. Samura comes to PLU from Aiea, Hawaii and Hawaii Baptist Academy while Kate Wooten hails from nearby Maple Valley and Tahoma High School.

“Brooke is somebody who is going to have an incredible career here and she’s going to be exciting to watch on the court this season. She’ll fight for major minutes. She can score in a number of ways and is a basketball player to her core.”

“Kate and Ava are both incredible teammates who are learning so fast. They bring a size at the perimeter which allows them to be versatile players within our offense. Kate has exceeded our expectations. She’s a lefty and a leader already and is just a really fun kid to watch. Ava’s a gritty and tough forward who can impact the box score in a ton of ways.”

Now in her third year at the helm, Coach Aduddell recognizes the importance of having local recruits.

Recruiting locally is so important because that’s who we are as a University. We know who we are— blue collar, with an underdog type of mentality and that’s who Kate and Ava are and so they fit our team perfectly.

A Fresno, California native, Madison Moles adds size as a 6’ 5” junior center. Moles played at Division I Northwestern State University (Louisiana) the past two seasons where injures limited her to playing in just two games. A two-time member of the Southland Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Moles was a standout at Washington Union High School, averaging 15 ppg and 10 rpg as a senior.

This weekend the Lutes play on back to back days, hosting Warner Pacific University on Saturday afternoon before playing Ripon College on Sunday in a neutral site game at the University of Puget Sound’s Memorial Fieldhouse.

The expectation’s that we’re the grittier, tougher team in both outings. The expectation is that we out rebound both teams because that’s one of the things that needs to be our identity this year. We know that we have a lot of parity on our roster, which means the expectation is that when you are in the game you are giving max effort for however many minutes that can be. We expect to have some depth that allows us to be fresh and push the tempo a little bit, which will be a little bit of a change from who we have been in the past.

2024-2025 Season Schedule