Staten Island, NY - Wagner College head women's basketball coach, Heather Jacobs, has high hopes that 2018-19 is the year that her program takes the next step in ascending up the ranks in the Northeast Conference (NEC). Reaching that goal means a chance to qualify for the postseason conference tournament, something that the Seahawks haven't done since the 2013-14 season.
 
Following the completion of their non-conference slate in 2017-18, things looked promising for the Seahawks as they opened up league play with an impressive 75-66 road victory at Bryant, a team that had won 18 overall games in 2016-17, to go along with an 11-7 record in league play while reaching the conference championship game.  As the season wore, Wagner found itself in 15 games that were decided by ten points or fewer, and went 3-4 in contests decided by 5-10 points. 

 

 

 

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SEAHAWK BACKCOURT
Senior Nakylia Carter (Oklahoma City, OK/Putnam City North/Butler Community College [KS]) along with redshirt sophomore Morgan Lenahan (Haddonfield, NJ/Haddon Township) return and will look to anchor the Wagner backcourt.  Carter, who started in 27 of the 29 games a year ago, averaged close to 3.0 assists a contest (9th in the NEC), has six games in which she delivered five or more assists, as she recorded a season-high eight assists on two separate occasions, the first at St. Francis Brooklyn (1/15/18) and the last coming at home against Bryant (2/19/18).
 

 

Lenahan returns as Wagner's leading returning scorer, as she produced 9.5 points per game over 28 games last season. The Haddonfield, NJ native was a three-point shooting threat, connecting on 32.5 percent from the outside (top-20 in the NEC) as she drilled 54 threes (10th highest total in the league). Alayshia Dailey (Severn, MD/Old Mill), Addie Masonius (Spring Lake, NJ/Manasquan) and Joellen How (Opunake, New Zealand/New Plymouth) are players at Coach Jacobs' disposal to provide depth in the backcourt. Additionally, Khaleah Edwards (London, England/City of London Academy) can give Wagner a different dynamic as she is capable of playing multiple positions. 


Redshirt junior, Janelle Mullen (Ozone Park, NY/The Hun School [Saint Peter's University]) will also be an option after sitting out last season due to NCAA transfer regulations. In 2016-17 for Saint Peter's, Mullen appeared in 30 games while earning four starts. The Ozone Park, NY native recorded ten games with at least 10 points while dishing out 54 assists.

In the offseason, Jacobs and her staff recruited two newcomers that will vie for time on the floor, while learning the Seahawk system, in Raven Pitt (Queens, NY/St. Joseph) and Sarah Creanor (Penrith, Australia/Penrith Basketball Association). Creanor was a mid-year transfer who benefited from competing in practice during the second half of the 2017-18 season. At Penrith, she averaged 6.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg and 1.6 apg for the Panthers U-22 team. She was the Most Valuable Player on the U-18 squad after averaged 10.1 ppg, 8.2 rpg and 2.8 apg in leading Penrith to the NSW Junior (U-18) Metropolitan Conference Championships.

Pitt is regarded as a lock-down defender. A First-Team CHSAA selection in her junior and senior seasons at St. Joseph High, she averaged 13.5 points per game as a senior in leading the Cougars to the Brooklyn/Queens A Division title her senior season.

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SEAHAWK FRONTCOURT:

 

Up front for Wagner in 2018-19 starts with redshirt sophomore, Taylah Simmons (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia/Canterbury Girls' Secondary). Last season, Simmons, who played in 27 games, averaged 8.9 points a contest while pulling down 5.1 rebounds, second to Sierra Clark. The Australia native produced 12 games in which she scored in double-figures, highlighted by a career-best, 19-point outing against Saint Francis U (1/22/18). Simmons corralled a season-high 13 caroms against Longwood (12/10/17) in 32 minutes of action.


Coach Jacobs had added to her frontcourt with the additions of Jordan Hobson (Richmond, CA/Salesian College Prep [Diablo Valley College]), Emilija Krista Grava (Ligatne, Latvia/Liepajas Papirisk SSS) and Enas Nigatu (Arlington, VA/Washington-Lee). Hobson transferred to Wagner from Diablo Valley College where she captained the Vikings to a conference championship and a 23-5 overall record. The Richmond, CA native averaged 11.8 points per game to go along with 7.6 rebounds a contest. Hobson poured in a season-high 41 points against Folsom Lake College, aided by a school-record nine three-pointers. 

Krista Grava is the fifth international student-athlete on the 2018-19 roster. Playing primarily at the forward spot, for Liepajas Papirs/LSSS during the 2017-18 season, she averaged 7.4 points, 6.1 rebounds in 22.5 minutes. Krista Grava led her squad to a second-place finish in both the Latvian-Estonian League and the Latvian Championship.  Nigatu rounds out the newcomers for Wagner in 2018-19, arriving from Arlington, VA. During her senior season at Washington-Lee, she averaged 12.3 points per game, 10.6 rebounds and nearly 1.5 blocks per contest.

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2018-19 SCHEDULE  (CLICK HERE)
The 2018-19 season is the program's 47th overall and 42nd year as a Division I program. Coach Jacobs' Seahawks are slated to play a total of 14 games at the Spiro Sports Center this season, with five of those contests occurring during non-league play.
 
"We have put together a competitive non-conference slate that will ultimately prepare us for Northeast Conference (NEC) play as our team continues to make strides in vying for a league championship," commented Jacobs. "Our schedule features teams that qualified for the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) last season in Seton Hall and Fordham, who advanced to the Sweet 16 of the tournament and against Yale, who captured the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) championship. We are excited for this season to begin and to see all of our Seahawk fans fill the Spiro Sports Center."
 
For the fifth straight season, Wagner will tip off the season away from Grymes Hill as the Seahawks make the short trip to South Orange, NJ to take on the Seton Hall University Pirates from Walsh Gymnasium. This game is the first of a doubleheader as both Wagner and Seton Hall's men's teams will follow.
 
Three days later, the Green & White will head up to the Bronx to tangle with Atlantic 10 member Fordham for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff. The Rams, who finished the 2017-18 season with a 24-10 overall record, advanced to the WNIT Sweet Sixteen before falling to Virginia Tech (81-50). Wagner concludes the three-game road trip in Farmville, VA as to face Longwood. Last season, the Seahawks defeated the Lancers, 60-43, at the Spiro Sports Center.
 
Wagner's home opener is slated for November 17 as the Seahawks welcome Patriot League member Lafayette. A week later, the team is back on the road as the Green & White will compete in the TD Bank Classic, hosted by the University of Vermont. The four teams in the Classic include the Seahawks, the host Catamounts, Siena and Drexel. Wagner will take on the host Catamounts on November 23 and close out the two-day tournament on November 24. The Seahawks round out the first month of the season at home against Yale on November 27 before traveling to Saint Peter's on November 30.
 
A light, three-game December slate has the Seahawks home for two of the three matches. Wagner welcomes Army West Point on December 8 before hitting the road on December 15 as the team heads to Stony Brook. The final non-conference tilt puts Staten Island's two institutions together as the College of Staten Island pays a visit to the Spiro Sports Center on December 21.
 
The new year begins with a full, 18-game Northeast Conference (NEC) schedule as Wagner will begin the league season on the road by traveling to St. Francis Brooklyn (Jan. 5), before concluding the trip at Central Connecticut (Jan. 7).
 
A three-game homestand begins on January 12 as the Green & White host Sacred Heart, followed by Fairleigh Dickinson (Jan. 14), before concluding against Mount St. Mary's on January 19. The final three games of league play in January will be away from Staten Island as the team travels to Sacred Heart on January 21 before embarking on the Western Pennsylvania swing which begins at Robert Morris on January 26. The trip then concludes in Loretto, PA against defending league champion Saint Francis U on January 28.
 
To kick off February, Wagner will have a home-and-home series with LIU Brooklyn, hosting the Blackbirds on February 2 before making the trip across the Verrazano Bridge on February 9. Two days later, St. Francis Brooklyn makes the short trip to Staten Island. The brief homestand concludes on Feb. 16 as the Seahawks will take on Central Connecticut. Two of the final three games in the month are on the road as Wagner heads to Mount St. Mary's (Feb. 18) and Fairleigh Dickinson (Feb. 23) before returning home to host Bryant (Feb. 25).
 
The month of March opens with the final two home games of the 2019 regular season as Robert Morris (Mar. 2) and Saint Francis U (Mar. 4) visit. The regular season finale is slated for March 7 as Wagner will travel to Smithfield, RI to battle Bryant.
 
The 2019 NEC Tournament is slated to start on March 11, with the semifinals set for March 14 and the championship game to tip off on March 17.

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