Wheeling, W. Va. - With a new head coach, and a young roster, the Wheeling University Women's Basketball team embarked on the 2025-2026 season with the same goal in mind, make it back to the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Tournament. Not only did they make it back to the tournament field, but they earned a first round bye for the second season in a row before bowing out in the MEC Quarterfinals. With many of their key pieces returning in 2026-2027, the team looks to build off that success moving forward as they build a winning culture around Wheeling.
In her first season as Head Coach, Ella Skeens set up a challenging non-conference schedule, preparing her team for the challenging MEC Tournament. They opened with six straight on their home floor, going 4-2 during that stretch. Included was their MEC opening win against Point Park University, and the Cardinals sat at 5-2 through their first seven games. They would hit their first bit of adversity right before the Christmas break, going 1-3 down the final four-game stretch. They sat at 6-5 heading into the break and faced two of the top teams in the conference coming after the break. They would move to 6-7 and needed to turn things around down the stretch.
They would get back in the win column with a 72-63 win over Frostburg State, and they got back on the right track. They would win three of their next four games, including a 69-66 upset win over Glenville State on January 17th. They ended the run with a win over West Liberty University that had them sitting at 10-8 to round out January. They would end up going 7-4 down the stretch to clinch the #6 seed in the MEC Tournament and earn the first round bye for the second season in a row. They would end up facing the University of Charleston for the thrid time in the last four years and, after falling behind early, were able to battle back in the second half. However, they would end up falling just short in a 69-55 loss to the Golden Eagles. It ended a strong season for the Cardinals that they look to build off of for the next several years.
As they have been for the past four seasons, the Cardinals were led by senior guard Kenzie Dalton, who wrote her name in the Cardinal record books. She became just the 30th player in program history to join the 1,000-point club, moving into the top 30 all-time in scoring. Along with scoring the ball, Dalton was also able to enter into exclusive company, reaching 500 career rebounds, 500 career assists, and 300 career steals through her career. She put together her highest scoring season of her career, averaging 17.4 PPG across 29 games played. She led the conference in both assists (156) and steals (100), while sitting fourth in scoring and eighth in rebounding. For her efforts, she earned both First Team All-Conference and Second Team All-Region honors, and was also named the MEC's Defensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row.
Finishing right behind her was sophomore Emilia Sierra Lacosta, who put together a career-best 12.7 PPG in her sophomore season. Sierra Lacosta would be the Cardinal's main deep threat throughout the season, hitting 31.4% of her three-pointers to sit second among the Cardinal starters. She made the third most three-pointers in the conference this season, hitting 53, and averaging 1.8 three-pointers per game. Under the net, freshman Emma Reynolds was thrown right into the fire, and handled her opportunity. She sat second on the team with 5.2 rebounds per game, while sitting second on the team with 12 blocks. She would finish just shy of a double-digit scoring average, putting up 9.4 points per game and putting up a season-high 21 points against West Liberty on January 24th.
The Wheeling University Women's Basketball team now heads into the off-season as they look to build off their 2025-2026 success into the future.
