MOSCOW, Idaho - The Idaho Vandal women's basketball team welcomes a talent Montana Tech team that is 5-1 so far this season. The game is a regular-season game for Idaho while it counts as an exhibition game for the Orediggers. This is just the second meeting all-time for the Vandals and Diggers, the first coming in 1982 in the NCWSA Regional before the NCAA organized women's championships. 

ABOUT IDAHO
Idaho has won four straight by double-digits, including three road wins over D1 opponents. The Vandals toppeled Cal Poly 74-54, shooting a season-best 52.6% (30-57) from the field and outrebounding the Mustangs 40-28. Idaho is 1-0 against NAIA opponents this year. Rosie Schweizer leads Idaho with 13.7 PPG and Jennifer Aadland averages 10.5 points and 10.7 rebounds per game.

ABOUT MONTANA TECH
Five Orediggers average double-digits, led by Aubrie Rademacher who averages 14.0 points per game while Hadley Humphreys averages a team-high 9.2 rpg. Montana Tech is 5-1 against NAIA teams, but 0-2 in exhibitions against DII and DI teams, falling 63-55 against Portland State. Head coach Jeff Graham is in his third season as head coach in Butte. 

GRADUATE TRANSFERS
Three Vandals; Olivia Nelson, Rosie Schweizer and Jennifer Aadland bring extensive experience into the fray for Idaho.Nelson has started in every game during her four year career at Central Missouri (117). Jennifer Aadland has 98 starts in 99 career games for Augustana (S.D.) The two met early last season with Central Missouri coming out on top. Aadland scored 16 points while Nelson scored a career-high 29. 

Schweizer had 93 games under her belt, including six starts for West Coast Conference team Pacific. 

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM TRANSFERS
Kelbie Washington and Hope Hassmann both earned All-Freshman Team honors for their respective teams. Hassmann played and started all 31 games for Fullerton last season, scoring 302 points and dishing out 87 assists. 

Washington was a All-Big 12 honoree at Oklahoma and earned National Freshman of the Week honors. She missed the last two seasons with an illness. 

INTERNATIONAL IMPACT
Five players on this year's roster are international, including two from Brazil, home of head coach Arthur Moreira and one from Portugal, who shares the Portuguese language with Brazil. 

Vitória Carvalho and Ana Beatriz Passos hail from Brazil. Ana Pinheiro is from Portugal. Anja Bukvic from Belgrade Serbia and Rosie Schweizer is from Australia. 

ICCU ARENA
The Vandals enter the fourth season of play at the amazing ICCU Arena in Moscow. The $51 million arena sits just over 4,200 fans and includes the latest technology for fan and student-athlete experience. The Vandals are 20-19 all-time in the Arena.

COACHING STAFF
First-Year Head Coach Arthur Moreira compiled a coaching staff of former co-workers, opponents and trusted recruiters. 

His first move was to retain and promote Drew Muscatell. Muscatell was promoted to Associate Head Coach during the offseason. He enters his seventh season as an assistant for the Vandals and has worked for three different head coaches. 

Moreira added former Montana Assistant Coach Lindsey Foster to his staff. Foster was a coach at Montana for one season, before that, she was the head coach at DII Academy of Art in San Francisco. 

Derek Saich served as the Director of Operations and Assistant Coach at Moreira's former school San Francisco. The two worked together for two seasons at USF. 

The final assistant is Denise Rosario, an experienced junior college coach from South Plains Junior College in Texas. She has extensive international recruiting connections, hailing from Minas Gerais, Brazil. 

NET HISTORY
During the 2020-21 season, women's basketball introduced daily NET rankings for Division I. In that season, the Vandals reached their highest ranking of 126 on 3/11/21. They finished with an overall ranking of 133, improving 86 spots compared to their starting position of 219.

In the past two seasons, Idaho struggled in the rankings unable to surpass the 200 mark. The highest ranking in 2021-22 was 202 (2/5/22) and the highest in 2022-23 was 205 (3/5/23). 

In 2023-24, Idaho had its highest start at 167 and kept climbing. On 1/10/24, the Vandals ranked at 125, breaking the program record. 

REBOUND LEADERS
After playing a pair of tough, long power-five level teams, you would think that Idaho would have been dominated on the boards, but the Vandals have outrebounded every opponent so far this season, including a 52-36 advantage over Washington State. The Vandals stand atop the Big Sky for team rebounds. Jennifer Aadland has led the way, averaging 10.7 rebounds per game, including 18 rebounds against Washington State. 

PRESEASON BIG SKY POLLS
The Vandals were picked eighth in the Big Sky Coaches Poll and seventh in the Big Sky Media Poll. No Idaho players were named to the Big Sky Preseason All-Conference Team. Northern Arizona was picked to win the league in both polls. 

Idaho was picked in the same spot a season ago and finished sixth in the league. 

FORMER BIG WEST FOES
Idaho and 10-7 all-time against Cal Poly. The two teams were in the same league from 2001-02-2004-05. The two teams last played in 2023 when the Mustangs won 65-55.
 
NEWCOMER IMPACT 
All five starters so far this season are newcomers to the team. Of Idaho's 394 points this season, 375 have come from players who were not on the roster a year ago. Rosie Schweizer has a pair of 20+ point road games

REBOUNDING LEADER
Jennifer Aadland is ninth in the nation in defensive rebounds and is 16th in rebounds per game. She had a career-high 18 rebounds against WSU and has been in double figures in four of six games.