BALTIMORE - UMBC women's basketball hosts Stevenson on Monday night at 6:30 p.m. inside Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena to open up the 2025-26 season. The Retrievers look to build off a strong first season under head coach Candice Hill in 2024-25. The Retrievers were picked to finish eighth in the America East preseason poll.

Monday night marks the first all-time meeting between UMBC and Division III foe Stevenson. UMBC is 11-0 against Division III competition over the past decade, defeating four different programs by an average of 31.1 points. 

• Hill's program features five returners and eight newcomers in 2025-26. Carmen Yánez is the lone returning starter for UMBC, while fellow captain Tiara Bellamy is expected to fill a larger role. Also back are junior Alaina Williams, and sophomores Lauren Thompson and Kenya Ramsey. 
• UMBC's eight newcomers are split between four transfers and four freshmen. 
  • Incoming Transfers -> Dagny Slomack (Soph. | Central Connecticut State), Delaney Yarborough (Sr. | North Carolina A&T), Gabby Scott (Jr. | Towson), Jade Tillman (Jr. | East Carolina)
  • Freshmen -> Heidi Williams (Saint Frances Academy), Kennedy Austin (Maret), Sadaya Jones (Morgantown), Maisie Crowley (Bishop McNamara)
• The 2025-26 Retrievers represent three countries and six states.
  • Maryland (5) -> Austin, Scott, Tillman, H. Williams, Yarborough
  • New Jersey (2) -> Bellamy, Slomack
  • Connecticut (1) -> Thompson
  • Florida (1) -> A. Williams
  • Virginia (1) -> Ramsey
  • West Virginia (1) -> Jones
  • Spain (1) -> Yánez
  • England (1) -> Crowley
• Yánez, Bellamy, and Yarborough will captain the program in 2025-26. Yánez started 28 games last season and handed out five or more assists in seven different games. Bellamy averaged just under four points per game off the bench in year one as a Retriever after transferring from Saint Peter's. Yarborough, the veteran transfer from NC A&T, posted five games with at least five rebounds and put forth her best performance of the season (9 pts, 6 reb) against her former school, Stony Brook. 

• The 2024-25 Retrievers posted a record of 14-15 in year one under Candice Hill, matching the 2022-23 record for the most wins since 2016-17 for UMBC women's hoops. 
• UMBC reached the America East Conference Tournament as the #7 seed before falling to #2 Vermont, 70-39. The Retrievers held a two-point lead after the opening 10 minutes before the Catamounts pulled away.
• The name of the game for the Retrievers in 2024-25 was defense as UMBC ranked in the top-65 in the country in scoring defense, allowing just 59.1 points per game. The Retrievers defended the three-point line extremely well, finishing the season 37th in Division I and second in the America East as teams shot just 28.1 percent from deep. 
• UMBC was also stellar at the charity stripe last season, knocking down its free throws at a 74.7 percent clip, ranking in the top-80 in Division I and recording the third-best mark in program history. 
• Under Hill's guidance, the Retrievers improved offensively from behind the three-point line (29.5% -> 30.4 %) and the free-throw line (67.8% -> 74.7%). The Retrievers also handed out 10.4 assists per game compared to 9.9 the season prior and turned the ball over 1.3 fewer times per game in 2024-25.

 

• Stevenson posted a 9-16 record in 2024-25, registering a conference record of 4-10 in the MAC Commonwealth. The Mustangs struggled away from Owings Mills Gymnasium, going 4-10 in away and neutral contests. 
• The Mustangs were picked sixth of eight programs in the MAC Commonwealth in the 2025-26 preseason coaches' poll. 
• The team's leading scorer from 2024-25, Janiya Ennis, returns after an impressive debut campaign where she averaged 11.8 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. Ennis scored in double figures 11 times, including a career-high effort of 29 points in a tight loss at Alvernia in January. 
• Veteran Tessa Boswell returns for the Mustangs as well after averaging 5.1 points and leading the team with 5.6 rebounds per game. The daughter of head coach Jackie Boswell, the senior has knocked down more than 100 career three-pointers and is just eight points shy of 500 for her career. 
• Jackie Boswell enters her 14th season at the helm of Stevenson with 175 career victories to her name. Boswell's program reached the NCAA Tournament in 2014-15, winning a program-record 24 games. Stevenson has five seasons of 15 or more victories under Boswell.