KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The MIAA kicked off its 2023 basketball media Tuesday morning, in Kansas City. For the Pitt State women’s basketball team, they’re coming off a 23-8 season from last year and a Central Regional semi-final loss to Southern. The Lady Gorillas have high expectations for this season.

Earlier Tuesday morning, the MIAA released the media and coaches poll, Pitt State came in at number three in both. It’s well warranted as they have eight returners coming from last year’s squad. Three of those star players are Karenna Gerber, Grace Pyle, and 2023 Freshman of the Year recipient Harper Schreiner.

Sophomore Guard Harper Schreiner said, “Yeah I’m excited. If we can get all the people on the right page. You know, just getting these freshmen acclimated. We’re still working with that, but I’m excited for what we can do.”

Junior Center Karenna Gerber says, “Yeah, so we came in with the media poll, obviously at three and so we’re pretty excited compared to last year was we were eight and so we’re kind of just looking to keep building off of that. And I know everyone’s excited.”

Amongst the returning players like Gerber, she led the team in scoring last season with 15 points per game. Grace Pyle led the way in three point field goal percentage shooting 33 percent from deep. Harper Schreiner led the way as a freshman in assists per game with four and steals per game with one and a half. The expectations are certainly high for this team, and they’re just looking to build off those goals and go out and have a great year.

Junior Guard Grace Pyle mentioned, “The expectations are pretty high. And I think, you know, we’re gonna keep raising the bar and we’re not satisfied with, you know, polls are polls, they’re pretty political, but I think we have to still have a lot to prove, and we definitely shouldn’t be satisfied.”

Head Coach Amanda Davied stated, “We need to be competing every day. And so this group has some high expectations for themselves. And then you know, of course, rankings and all that are for the fans. We just have to go about doing our business every day and trying to get better every single day. And then you hope by then get there.”

If the Lady Gorillas are planning to have a big year, they have the talent, depth and coaching to do so. They will get their first taste at some court action on November 3rd in an exhibition game against Kansas State. For their first actual game, it will be on November 10th, when they compete in the MIAA/GAC in Shawnee, Oklahoma.