By: Michael Del Genio
Dominican University women’s basketball tips off their season with a thrilling 68-47 over Beloit College. Guard Lia Saunders led the scoring with fourteen points on 35% shooting. The team as a whole shot at a 37% clip from the field as well as totaling 41 rebounds throughout the game.
The Stars attacked on defense swarming the ball up and down the court, putting on full display a new philosophy for the program. Coach Tethnie Carillo, entering her second season as head coach, emphasizes aggressive defense, “Defensively we want to cause havoc, we want to be quicker. We want to put lots of ball pressure on teams to create a turnover off the pass or get them into a rushed situation to where they’ll end up making a turnover later in the play.”
Havoc was put on full display as the Stars caused 31 turnovers and tallied 18 steals collectively as well as one block from junior Kaitlyn Milison. The high intensity of the Stars reflects an important change from the 2024-25 season to the 2025-26 season.
“The biggest thing is the style of play. We have some different players this year that allow us to play faster. In practice, one of the biggest things we try to focus on is the fundamentals. We want to make sure that we can play in a controlled fast to where we can put pressure on the defense to have to get down the floor, whether it’s a made or missed basket,” Carillo adds.
Coach Carillo praises her team this year, “Going into this year, it’s just completing our vision to be a little bit more athletic and really kind of get in our philosophy offensively and defensively of what we cant to carry for the next however many years.”
Carillo who entered her tenure at Dominican with the now junior class sees them as the base of her culture and program.
“Our base is our junior class, because they have been with us when I came in as the assistant head coach and the other two assistants. We all got to stay together… We are kind of building around that junior class because they got lots of experience their freshman and sophomore years.”
The junior class is highlighted by captain Lia Saunders and captain Aya Deiri who have both played impactful roles their previous two seasons. They help lead a team that has brought in eleven freshman and two transfers rounding out a roster of 22 players.
“I think the upperclassmen we do have are helping our underclassmen get to the level they need to… We have the right group to help mentor the younger ones, but they also put in a lot of work on their own time and doing the things they need to do,” Saunders says.
Aya Deiri praises the teams dynamic, “From what I’ve noticed we have really good team chemistry, We’re still figuring out how to play with one another and have reads with one another. Some plays there’s a kind of struggle. Otherwise our energy bounces off one another, being high intensity and energetic and excited.”
Chemistry has been preached upon well before the season began with leadership meetings and online Zoom meetings held over the summer for the team to connect and begin that chemistry before school began. “We did a few team Zoom calls, trying to get to know one another,” Deiri says.
It has been six years since the last time women’s basketball has had a winning season. However, senior center Ashley Green holds a lot of confidence in the future of the program. “The season before was a different coaching staff and environment. We’ve only gone up from there. We’ve made growth and it doesn’t happen overnight. Rebuilding a program takes time. I’m very confident in what this program will be, even when I’m not here.”
“At the end of the day we want to create a good, positive name for Dominican women’s basketball, although we may have been called a losing program, obviously our record (last year) was not impressive, we use that to motivate us. That’s what last year was, we just want to be 100 times better this year,” Deiri affirms.
The future is bright for womens basketball at Dominican University. The team rides a wave of high energy and hopes, coming off a home opener win, big things are set ahead of them.
