Penn State women’s basketball tips off a new season at home on November 2 against Cleveland State. With a new coach and an almost entirely new roster, questions surround the Lady Lions heading into the season.

Uncertainty can breed optimism, however. With Penn State alumna and former WNBA guard Tanisha Wright taking the helm, plus a brand-new roster with proven college and international experience, there’s a lot to unpack for the Lady Lions.

So who are the women who will represent the blue and white this season? Let’s take a look.

Penn State’s backcourt overhaul adds fast, sharpshooting guards with high upside. Devyn Quigley and Enjulina Gonzalez are an exciting backcourt duo through whom the majority of the offense will run.

Quigley, a junior who played the previous two years at NC State, is a deadeye from beyond the arc, shooting 37% from 3-point range last season.

She made six starts in 29 appearances, including 20 points off the bench against Coastal Carolina, and helped the Wolfpack make back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Gonzalez is a graduate student who can fly all over the court. She spent 2024-25 with Miami (Ohio) and 2025-26 in Georgia. At Miami, she was a first-team All-MAC selection, shooting 36.8% from beyond the arc and averaging two steals per game.

She’s an exciting guard who can score from anywhere, primed for a comeback fifth year after a down year with the Bulldogs last season.

Kamrah Banks is a freshman who will, without a doubt, excite Lady Lion fans. The four-star recruit left Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis as the all-time leading scorer.

She averaged 20.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.4 steals per game in her senior season and was a 2026 McDonald’s All-American nominee.

The No. 1-ranked combo guard in Indiana also broke her school’s single-game points record with 63, surpassing Oscar Robertson.

Ava Black, a sophomore from Vanderbilt, shot 52.2% from the field as a freshman and helped the Commodores reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009.

Ashlee Brown, Skylar Durley, and Vitoria Santana round out the Nittany Lions’ guard rotation. Brown, hailing from West Des Moines, Iowa, was third-team all-state and a McDonald’s All-American nominee.

Durley was Mountain West Freshman of the Year at Nevada last season and started every game for the Wolfpack, averaging 11.8 points in her first year of NCAA hoops. Santana is the only returning Lady Lion. She enters her graduate year after scoring 66 points last season.

The Lady Lions’ frontcourt brings size, scoring, and plenty of experience in NCAA and international play.

Petra Božan will be a force to be reckoned with down low for the Lady Lions this season. The junior from Nebraska brings Big Ten and international experience.

She shot over 50% from the field last season for the Cornhuskers and averaged 21.4 points and 15.4 rebounds for Croatia at the 2026 FIBA U20 European Championship.

She is a versatile defender, a magnet on the boards, and can knock down threes at large. Božan has proven she can produce when given a bigger role, and that’s exactly what she’ll get at Penn State.

Savannah White and Cristen Carter are two Big East forwards who bring size and scoring.

White is a graduate student from Xavier who tallied two double-doubles last season, including an 11-point, 12-rebound performance against St. John’s in the Big East Tournament.

Carter, standing at 6-foot-4, comes from Butler, where she led the Bulldogs with 20 blocks and ranked in the top 15 in blocks per game in the conference.

Irene Garcia, an international freshman from Spain, has played in Liga Femenina 2, the Spanish women’s second division of pro basketball, since 2024. She has also represented the Spanish women’s junior national teams on multiple occasions.

The new group is under the direction of Wright.

Wright played for the Lady Lions from 2001 to 2005 and finished fourth all-time in points with 1,995, while winning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year three times.

Wright then won a WNBA Championship with the Seattle Storm in 2010 and earned seven WNBA All-Defensive Team selections over a 14-year career. Her defensive mindset will run strong throughout this season’s Lady Lions and be a focal point of their team identity.