On the back of a run to the Sweet 16 and a 25-win season, Maryland women’s basketball is gearing up for year 24 of the Brenda Frese era.
The roster for 2025-26 features a mix of newcomers and familiar faces with eight returning players, two highly-touted transfers and five freshmen.
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Here’s what you need to know about the team ahead of the season opener on Monday, Nov. 3 against Loyola-Maryland.
Returners
Just over half of Maryland’s roster is returning to the team after helping the Terps to a successful 2024 campaign. The Terps return eight players, four of whom were consistently in the rotation: Kaylene Smikle, Bri McDaniel, Saylor Poffenbarger and Mir McLean.
Smikle and McDaniel’s return will be critical for Frese’s team, as the two guards were key cogs in the team’s engine last season on both ends of the floor. The biggest question marks for the two surround their health.
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McDaniel tore her ACL in a mid-January game against Minnesota last season, and has said there is currently no strict timetable for when she’ll return to action. McDaniel’s surgery didn’t occur until the end of January, and it usually takes close to a calendar year for recovery.
Smikle, meanwhile, was surprisingly absent from the team’s open practice scrimmage and first exhibition game against No. 9 NC State.
“[Smikle’s] been slowed a bit with some nagging injuries,” Frese said at media day.
Getting her on the court sooner rather than later to anchor Maryland’s back court will be important as the Terps try to establish chemistry and an identity early in the season.
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Poffenbarger and McLean, two of the team’s three captains, are also back as frontcourt contributors. Despite struggling from beyond the arc on offense, Poffenbarger was Maryland’s best rebounder and a solid rim protector last year, often tasked with guarding taller players.
McLean is Maryland’s do-it-all glue player off the bench. What she lacks in an offensive skillset she makes up for on the defensive end, and seemingly always came through with timely baskets in important games for the Terps last year.
The Terps also bring back Ava McKennie, who played sparingly in 2024-25, but showed flashes of tenacious on-ball defense. It will be an uphill battle for her to break into a bigger role as Maryland picked up some talented freshmen and transfers at guard.
Maryland also returns a trio of players who redshirted the previous season: Kyndal Walker, Breanna Williams and Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu.
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Walker is the most intriguing of the bunch. She came in as a highly-touted freshman last season, but was forced to redshirt due to a wrist injury. Ozzy-Momodu transferred from Gulf Coast State, and sat out the entire year rehabbing a knee injury, while Williams was a developmental redshirt.
Transfers
According to NCAA.com, Maryland brought in the fifth-best transfer class, but it was almost better.
Penn State center Gracie Merkle was committed to Maryland for over a month before deciding to return to the Nittany Lions.
“You probably have to ask [Merkle] the question, why she decided to go back,” Frese said. “The rules in play for now that she signed and committed to us, and then, after six to eight weeks, had a change of heart and decided to go back to Penn State.”
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Despite only having two transfers, Maryland found some of the best talent in the portal — both of whom have familiarity with Maryland.
The Terps faced both Yarden Garzon and Oluchi Okananwa last season, and their experience from high-level programs should benefit the team.
“I think the great thing is we do a really good job as a staff, kind of addressing our needs where we feel like maybe we need to turn some areas to even bigger strengths,” Frese said. “I think two-fold for us when we went into the portal, we felt we needed to get additional three-point shooting as well as defensive athleticism.”
Garzon spent the last three seasons at Indiana and led the Hoosiers with 14.4 points per game in 2024-25. She also shot 43.1% from the field and 40.7% from deep, and will improve the Terps from beyond the arc.
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Garzon is one of Maryland’s captains this season and was named to the All-Big Ten Preseason Team. She is a two-time member of the All-Big Ten second team.
Okananwa was last season’s ACC Tournament’s most outstanding player with Duke and was a key contributor to an Elite 8 appearance. She is a two-way threat who can be a dangerous scorer. Okananwa led the Terps with 21 points in their first exhibition against No. 9 NC State.
“This is a great place to start, but I’m just so looking forward to the future, and so looking forward on the building that,” Okananwa said after Sunday’s exhibition.
The Duke transfer isn’t a threat from deep, but can hurt opponents inside. Last season, she averaged 10.1 points per game on 47.3% shooting from the field. She’s only 5-foot-10, but averaged 5.3 rebounds last season, making an impact in all facets of the game.
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Freshmen
Maryland had two freshmen committed to the program throughout most of last season, but added three later on from overseas.
Addi Mack and Rainey Welson are the American recruits, and it’s unclear what their role will be. Both were impactful in the exhibition against NC State.
“I thought Addi [Mack] and Rainey [Welson] did a tremendous job. They didn’t act like freshmen and were really, really aggressive for us,” Frese said after the exhibition.
Mack had 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists in her first taste of college basketball. Welson had six points and two rebounds on 2-of-5 shooting.
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Maryland has a deep roster with a lot of talent. Mack and Welson will have to earn significant playing time, but they showed glimpses of Maryland’s future in their first game action.
“Our chemistry is off the charts. Our depth, people haven’t seen it yet, but, like, we all 15 players can play, and we each bring, like, a different aspect of the game to the court,” Welson said.
Maryland’s three other freshmen are a group unlike any kind Maryland has seen in program history — three international first-year players who can have an immediate impact on the team.
Lea Bartelme was a potential WNBA prospect, but opted to join Maryland out of Slovenia. She’s a 5-foot-8 point guard with experience playing against top competition in Europe. Bartelme is a member of the Slovenian National Team, and has a chance to receive ample playing time.
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“I just want to go in to see how it is, so I can see what maybe, compare it to Europe,” Bartelme said. “I’m excited to take the best things from Europe, take the best things from here, and to combine it to make it even better.”
Marya Boiko was brought in for size. Her 6-foot-4 frame will be prominent for the Terps down low.
Originally from Belarus, Boiko had a strong resume playing in Russia and was a needed paint presence, especially after Merkle decommitted and Allie Kubek departed.
“Obviously, when the change happened with Gracie Merkle, I feel really grateful that we were able to go find two awesome players to be able to add to this team that have made, both Marya [Boiko] and Nicole [Fritea], have made terrific impacts within our team,” Frese said.
Nicole Fritea is a 6-foot-2 forward from Romania. She hasn’t seen much playing time in the preseason thus far, but could be a strong developmental piece for the Terps.
