MOSCOW, Idaho - UC Davis comes to town in one of the best mid-major matchups of the week. The Aggies are the toughest opponent since the Vandals played BYU and Washington State at 6-4 overall and 103 in the NET rankings. The Aggies have won five of their last six. Idaho has won seven straight, including all four home games. About 1,000 elementary school kids are expected to be in attendance.
ABOUT IDAHO
Idaho has won seven straight by double-digits, including three road wins over D1 opponents. It is the longest win streak since the 2019-2020 season. The Vandals are coming off of a a 15-point home win over Utah State.
Olivia Nelson had a team-high a team-high 20 points to lead the way.
Rosie Schweizer leads Idaho with 13.0 PPG and
Jennifer Aadland averages 10.2 points and 10.8 rebounds per game.
ABOUT UC DAVIS
The forward duo of Megan Norris and Tova Sabel combines for 28 points and 13 rebounds per game while racking up 27 blocks in 10 games. Davis' schedule is tough and includes six DI road games so far this season, including a loss at Stanford and Montana State. The lone common opponent to date is Cal Poly who both teams beat on the road. head coach Jennifer Gross has 243 career wins to her name in 14 seasons.
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 had 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 22-19 all-time in the Arena. The Vandals played their Dec. 7 game against St. Thomas in Memorial Gym because of practice.
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
The Idaho women's team reached the highest net ranking in program history last week, cracking the top 80 for the first time ever, moving as high as 78th. They sit at 86 currently despite winning their last game against Utah State.
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 2021-22 and 2022-23, 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 previous 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 rebounding margin and are seventh in the country for defensive rebounds.
Jennifer Aadland has led the way, averaging 10.4 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.
BIG SKY-SUMMIT CHALLENGE
Idaho beat St. Thomas 76-54 as part of the Big Sky/Summit League Challenge. The Idaho men and women played one game each in the challenge and each won their games.
NEWCOMER IMPACT
All five starters so far this season are newcomers to the team. Of Idaho's 635 points this season, 603 have come from players who were not on the roster a year ago.
Rosie Schweizer has a pair of 20+ point road games
AADLAND ON THE BOARDS
Jennifer Aadland is ninth in the nation in defensive rebounds and is 15th in rebounds per game. She had a career-high 18 rebounds against WSU and has been in double figures in six of eight games.
