Before students begrudgingly roll from their beds for their 8 a.m. classes, the Seattle University women’s basketball team is hard at work. The Redhawks’ practices start at 7:30 a.m. sharp, and this year, the team has a lot of new faces.
Following the 2023-24 season, the Redhawks underwent a massive roster overhaul after losing their top five scorers to the transfer portal. The 13-member team was reduced to just two players, leaving head coach Skyler Young with a tall order.
“It’s a complete undertaking. Obviously, bringing in a whole new roster was going on,” Young said. “But you got to build a program the right way. And what it’s about is getting the foundational players in.”
The new team has 11 players, shy of the NCAA’s roster cap of 15 with Candy Edokpaigbe and Nicole Benini joining since The Spectator’s last check-in last May. Edokpaigbe, a Freshman Guard, is one piece of Young’s foundation. She’s standing at an average of 29.9 minutes played each game, with a field goal percentage of 54.3% and a three-point percentage of 30.8%, both above the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) average.
This academic year was Edokpaigbe’s first time in the U.S. She played for three club teams in Italy before choosing Seattle U.
“I was born in the south of Italy,” Edokpaigbe said. “I embraced the opportunity [to play for Seattle U] because I had the chance to follow my studies.”
One player who is no stranger to Redhawk red is Julianna Walker, a Senior guard from Tacoma, Wash. Walker stuck around after the 2023-24 season and wore a cream-colored hoodie after practice as she spoke about adapting to nine new faces in one season.
“It was a pretty big change, but nothing I’m not used to. I’m a very welcoming person, so I welcomed them with open arms, and we got to know each other pretty quick,” Walker said.
Walker, in her third season on the team, has a former opponent on her side now in Tamia Stricklin, a Redshirt Junior forward. Stricklin hails from Renton, Wash., and played for Seattle Prep in high school.
“I think we played against each other a couple times growing up, but now that [Tamia] came back home and is here at SU now, we’ve had a couple moments to really sit down and get to know each other,” Walker said.
Connecting off the court is a focus of Young’s coaching style. The self-described “relationship coach” meets with players weekly for conversations that usually stray from basketball. Through this care for the whole person of his players, it’s clear why Seattle U picked him to be the school’s sixth head women’s basketball coach.
The university also picked him because of his coaching history. While an assistant coach at the University of Portland from 2018-23, the Pilots won two West Coast Conference (WCC) championships. His pride in those achievements comes through when he speaks about them, but Seattle U’s impending move to the WCC allays any bravado.
“I gotta watch what we say, because we’re going to the WCC against the purple people down south,” Young said.
Games against Young’s former comrades in purple at the University of Portland are already on his mind. The WCC goes beyond the banks of the Willamette, however. Schools like Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga, though the latter recently announced they will depart the conference in 2026, pose tough competition for the Redhawks next season.
But back in the WAC, the new-look team has not had a strong introduction to the season. Going into their Jan. 23 and 25 games, they stood at 0-4 in conference play, with a scoring offense ranked last in the conference.
After a Jan. 22 practice, Walker expressed optimism going into the weekend’s conference games against the University of Texas Arlington and Utah Valley University.
“We’re off to a rocky start, you know, but I think, especially after our last game, we picked it up,” Walker said. “We’ve been working our butts off in practice, not that we normally don’t, but I think we’re hungry and we want to win, so I think we’re due for a win.”
UT Arlington came into Thursday’s game off Jan. 16 a loss to the other incoming Redhawk foe, Utah Valley. At the time, they were ranked second in the WAC with a 3-1 record.
Arlington fans made their presence felt in the Redhawk Center, due to the return of a former Redhawk and Lynnwood, Wash. native, Taliyah Clark. Clark played two seasons for Seattle U before her move to Texas under previous head coach Suzy Barcomb. You could call it vengeance; the last time she faced the Redhawks in 2023, she dropped 23 points.
On the court Thursday, the Redhawks kept the Mavericks in check during the first three quarters. Christeina Bryan, a Graduate forward, had a dominant performance with 12 points and 13 rebounds. This was her first career double-double.
“My mentality is always to match the physicality, always to outwork my opponent you know I never ever want my opponent to do better than me so I’m always gonna fight and just be that great player that my team needs,” Bryan said.
Bryan and Coach Young both noted that the game against Arlington was the first game all 11 members of the team were present. Struggles with injuries across the pre-season and into conference play sidelined members of the team.
“It was really hard for us because we needed the bodies, whether in practice and in games, it was really hard for us but despite that we decided to show up for each other every single day and fight until that person can come back and who’s there is out there,” Bryan said.
Early fouls from Edokpaigbe put her in danger of fouling out. As a result, Edokpaigbe only played 10 minutes despite starting.
In the fourth quarter, the Redhawk offense struggled, and the team gave Arlington 17 free throw chances. The 12 they made pushed them over the edge for a 70-58 Redhawks loss, pushing their conference record to 0-5.
Two days later, the team was in Orem, Utah, for a game against the Utah Valley Wolverines. The Redhawks were unable to snap their losing streak, coming in with a final score of 99-55.
Even with the loss, there were still points of positivity for Seattle U. Walker made four of five three-pointers and finished the game with 14 points, the most on the team. Stricklin shot 50% and scored 10 points.
In the last two minutes of the game, Seattle U did not score. Amanda Barcello and Orem native Tahlia White scored 17 and 23 points, respectively, and the Wolverines’ defense caused the Redhawks to leave the court with 36 turnovers.
After UT Arlington and Utah Valley, the Redhawk women’s basketball team has ten games left in conference play. In our discussion about the season, Coach Young iterated the same phrase, calling it the “march toward March.”
“Nobody remembers November or December,” Young said. “We try to just be the best version of ourselves into the end of February and March.”
Six games into conference play, the team is still hoping the roster will click into place. Last year, the team did not qualify for the WAC tournament and the previous year, they were eliminated in the second round. Just like Coach Young, Tamia Stricklin was still focused on March’s WAC Tournament after the game against UT Arlington.
“We’re a new team, we’re all a new roster so I think it’s just a matter of time putting things together,” Stricklin said.
After this season, the WCC awaits. The transition brings previously mentioned new levels of competition, but the team sees it as a positive. Young is more familiar with the styles of play in that conference and said he already knows what hotels his team will stay in next year.
“We gotta do our job on the recruiting level, but I feel great about it because that’s where I was for so long and a lot of us coaches haven’t changed,” Young said.
Early matchups with WCC schools could serve as an indicator of how the team will fare next year. Earlier this year, Seattle U played the University of Portland on their turf and lost 78-55. The previous year, the two schools played each other at the Redhawk Center and Seattle U lost 89-61.
Coaches and players in the program alike feel their record doesn’t speak for them, only standing as a reminder of work to be done. Even after the loss to UT Arlington, Young was unwavering in his belief in the team.
“We’re gonna be a very hard team to beat when we stop going through those droughts. The dial in and the effort and the attitude right now is great and awesome even despite what our record is right now,” Young said.
There are six home games left for Redhawk women’s basketball. Next up is conference leader Grand Canyon University, who the Redhawks will play early Nov. 30 for an 11 a.m. game.
