McLean County Times

Illinois State University’s women’s basketball team will begin the 2025-26 season at home against Dayton on Monday, November 2. The game is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. start at CEFCU Arena on Doug Collins Court.

The Redbirds have a strong record in season openers under head coach Kristen Gillespie, with five wins and three losses. They have won their last three season openers and five of the past six overall. Last year, Illinois State started its season with an 81-77 win against Northwestern, a Power 4 opponent.

In the preseason CollegeInsiders.com women's basketball Mid-Major Top 25 poll, Illinois State was ranked No. 12. Two other Missouri Valley Conference teams also made the list: Murray State at No. 8 and Belmont at No. 14.

For the third consecutive year, Illinois State faced Illinois Wesleyan in exhibition play. Five Redbird players scored in double figures during their lone preseason game, leading to an 89-46 victory over the Titans at CEFCU Arena. Transfer Bella Finnegan led all scorers with 20 points and hit five three-pointers out of eleven attempts. Trista Fata contributed 17 points and ten assists, while Nevaeh Thomas recorded twelve points and ten rebounds.

Last season, Illinois State advanced to the WNIT Semifinal for only the fourth time in program history—the first since 2011—and marked their sixteenth appearance in that tournament overall. Under Gillespie’s leadership, this was their fourth trip to the WNIT semifinals.

The Redbirds ended last season with a record of 24 wins and thirteen losses, including fourteen victories in conference play and fourteen home wins at CEFCU Arena. The team has now achieved three straight seasons with twenty or more wins—a streak unmatched by any other Division I women’s team in Illinois.

Illinois State returns seven players from last year's roster that reached the WNIT Fab Four round. This group includes Doneelah Washington (MVC All-Freshman team) and Addison Martin (All-MVC Newcomer team). Martin started every game last season—one of six players to set a single-season program record for games played—and scored double digits eighteen times, reaching over twenty points twice.

Nevaeh Thomas averaged just over twelve points per game along with seven rebounds and two-and-a-half assists per contest; she also ranked fifth in conference shooting percentage (54.5%). She scored double digits in twenty-nine games—including each of her first fifteen appearances—and posted ten double-doubles last season.

Dayton finished its previous campaign with eighteen wins and thirteen losses overall (11-7 A-10 Conference). The Flyers averaged nearly sixty-four points per game while holding opponents just above sixty-two points on average; they shot forty-one percent from the field as a team but lost some key starters from last year’s squad. Graduate student Nicole Stephens returns after making twenty-five starts last year; senior Nayo Lear is expected to take on more responsibility after averaging nearly five points per contest across nine starts.