Nov. 15—AIKEN — A new era begins now for the USC Aiken women’s basketball program.
The Pacers have a new head coach in Brittany Batts and an almost entirely new roster, with only four players back from last year.
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Every team begins every season with question marks, and USCA certainly has its fair share with so many new pieces.
How the Pacers answer those questions remains to be seen, but those questions are ones they plan to answer together.
“Every season brings its own set of challenges, and I think we go through all those challenges together. That’s what great about coaching basketball,” Batts said during the Peach Belt Conference’s preseason preview. “We do everything together as a team. If you are going through a challenging time, you’re doing it with 13, 14 other people who have your back and who are there to support you as well. It just gives us an opportunity to create, once again, those strong relationships. We go through the hard together.
“We find ways to get better through it, and we’re always going to find fun in it, too. We’re going to compete, get after each other. But I just look forward to every opportunity I get to go on the court with the team and every opportunity I get a chance to connect with one of them. How can we make their day better? How can we improve them as a basketball player, person, student? I just love that that’s my responsibility now.”
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Batts, the 2023-24 WBCA Division II Assistant Coach of the Year while at Gannon (Pennsylvania), takes over a USCA program that reached the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and then struggled through two tough seasons riddled with injuries and inconsistency, resulting in the resignation of Mark Miller after nine seasons at the helm.
She was introduced back in April, bringing with her a boatload of winning experience from her time at Gannon — as an assistant coach and previously as a star player — and successful stops with other programs, and since then she and the Pacers have been hard at work preparing for the season, which begins this weekend in Hickory, North Carolina, for the PBC/SAC Challenge. The Pacers play host Lenoir-Rhyne at 4 p.m. Saturday and Carson-Newman at 2 p.m. Sunday. Their home opener is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Nov. 29 against Belmont Abbey.
“Super excited and grateful to be coaching in the PBC,” she said. “Lot of great teams, lot of great coaches in this conference. Excited to build something great down at USC Aiken. Love what we’re building right now and excited to build these relationships with the players we have on the team and continue to get after it every day, be competitive, find joy in everything, and improve every single day.”
The Pacers were picked to finish 10th out of 11 teams in the PBC’s preseason coaches’ poll after back-to-back last-place finishes. USCA went 6-22 last year, with a 3-15 mark in PBC play, following a 5-23 (1-17) mark the year before.
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That’s all in the past, though, and nearly everyone on this year’s roster had nothing to do with those losses. Like the men’s team, the women bring back only four returners, and of those junior guard Destiny Harman is the only one with significant experience as a starter.
Harman, who earned her way into the starting lineup in her freshman season as a defensive ace, appeared in 28 games as a sophomore and started 16. Junior guard Makaylei Snyder played in the first four games of last season, with a couple of starts, but missed the rest due to injury. Morgan McDermott, another junior guard, appeared in 18 games, and senior guard Olivia Ellis appeared in five.
“I think it’s good. You’re in college, it’s new faces every year. I feel like we’ve already built really strong and stable relationships,” Harman said. “I mean, we hang out with each other 24/7, so that’s super exciting already. My role, I just feel like, is building those relationships over and over, focusing on making that intentional action of, ‘OK, if we’re hanging out, we’re all going. We’re all doing this together.’ We’re one big team. So, once again, it’s that foundation that we’ve built, and we’re going to continue to build on in that.”
Ten newcomers fill out the rest of the roster, four as freshmen from high school programs and the other six as transfers — two from other Division II programs, one from the junior college ranks and three from the Division I level in redshirt-junior guard Nika Kurdija from Vermont and redshirt-sophomore guard Ioanna Stefanaki and junior forward/center Zenia Palaska coming from Mercer.
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Batts said back in April she was bringing a new style of play to USCA, one that’s fast-paced with shooters on the perimeter and a full-court brand of defense.
So that’s one more new aspect to this program, and it’s one more challenge the Pacers are going to tackle together.
“I think we’ve all got the same goal,” Harman said. “We all want to win it, but this year we’re gonna win it. I think we’re all super excited. We’re getting after it. We’re competing. We’re having great practices, the way that we’ve already gotten after each other and then afterwards we’re hanging out. … I think I’m really curious to see how deep we’re going to go this year. I think we’re going to go pretty deep, and I think hopefully we get a championship and the NCAA Tournament.”
2025-26 USC Aiken Women’s Basketball Schedule
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Nov. 15 — 4 p.m. at Lenoir-Rhyne (PBC/SAC Challenge)
Nov. 16 — 2 p.m. vs. Carson Newman at Lenoir-Rhyne (PBC/SAC Challenge)
Nov. 19 — 5 p.m. at Emmanuel
Nov. 22 — 2 p.m. at Winston-Salem State
Nov. 29 — 1:30 p.m. vs. Belmont Abbey
Dec. 3 — 5:30 p.m. vs. USC Beaufort*
Dec. 6 — 1:30 p.m. at Middle Georgia*
Dec. 9 — Noon vs. Francis Marion
Dec. 13 — 1:30 p.m. at Flagler*
Dec. 17— 5:30 p.m. vs. North Georgia*
Dec. 20 — 1:30 p.m. vs. Tusculum
Dec. 31 — 2 p.m. at Barton
Jan. 3 — 1:30 p.m. at Lander*
Jan. 7 — 5:30 p.m. vs. Columbus State*
Jan. 10 — 1:30 p.m. vs. Georgia College*
Jan. 14 — 5:30 p.m. at Augusta*
Jan. 17 — 1:30 p.m. vs. Clayton State*
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Jan. 21 — 5:30 p.m. vs. Georgia Southwestern*
Jan. 24 — 1:30 p.m. at USC Beaufort*
Jan. 31 — 1:30 p.m. vs. Middle Georgia*
Feb. 4 — 5:30 p.m. at North Georgia*
Feb. 7 — 1:30 p.m. vs. Flagler*
Feb. 11 — 5:30 p.m. at Georgia College*
Feb. 14 — 1:30 p.m. vs. Augusta*
Feb. 18 — 5:30 p.m. at Columbus State*
Feb. 21 — 1:30 p.m. vs. Lander*
Feb. 25 — 5:30 p.m. at Georgia Southwestern*
Feb. 28 — 3 p.m. at Clayton State*
March 4-8 — Peach Belt Conference Tournament
*Peach Belt Conference game
