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Weber State's Paris Lauro, left, shoots over Antoniette Emma-Nnopu during a team workout on July 15, 2025, at WSU's Stromberg Complex in Ogden.

Ava Nash, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State guard Sydney White, left, drives against Paris Lauro during a team workout on July 15, 2025, at WSU's Stromberg Complex in Ogden.

Ava Nash, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State forward Antoniette Emma-Nnopu, left, drives against Arizana Peaua during a team workout on July 15, 2025, at WSU's Stromberg Complex in Ogden.

Ava Nash, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State forward Nicole Willardson, left, drives against Makenna Shaffer-Lauer during a team workout on July 15, 2025, at WSU's Stromberg Complex in Ogden.

Ava Nash, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State guard Fui Niumeitolu, left, shoots over Maya Davis during a team workout on July 15, 2025, at WSU's Stromberg Complex in Ogden.

Ava Nash, Weber State Athletics

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Weber State women's basketball head coach Jenteal Jackson crouches while watching a team workout on July 15, 2025, at WSU's Stromberg Complex in Ogden.

Ava Nash, Weber State Athletics

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The Weber State women's basketball team huddles during a workout on July 15, 2025, at WSU's Stromberg Complex in Ogden.

Ava Nash, Weber State Athletics

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OGDEN — Weber State women’s basketball shot from cellar dweller to tying for third place in Jenteal Jackson’s second season as head coach.

Weber State finished 13-16 overall and 10-8 in the Big Sky. The Wildcats are voted seventh and eighth in this season’s preseason polls.

It felt great to win games, but what’s next? The Wildcats think they’ve upgraded the roster in ways that provide defensive length and outside shooting, hoping to pose problems on both ends for opponents.

“We have a lot of different looks, different lineups we can play,” Jackson said. “We’ve added shooting pretty much in every spot, real high-percentage shooting and defensively, we’ve added some weapons; you can tell we’re a lot longer, which is exciting.

“We’re closer to a place where we’ve got the weapons to be full attack mode in the ways we want to be in our system.”

TWO SENIORS

Headlining the group of seven returners are the squad’s two seniors: shooting guard Lanae Billy and forward Antoniette Emma-Nnopu, who anchor the team’s outside shooting and rebounding efforts.

Billy averaged 9.1 points per game last season and is the nation’s third-best returning 3-point shooter, going 68 of 149 (45.6%) in her Division I debut.

Jackson said it will be key to keep Billy, who she called a “great teammate,” to stay aggressive and shoot when she’s got airspace, even as opponents are more aware of her sharpshooting.

“She’s got to shoot it every single time because 1 of 2 is going in,” Jackson said. “But back cuts are going to be available. She’s getting better at reading those moments. … She’s definitely not a one-dimensional player.”

Emma-Nnopu, meanwhile, has become one of the team’s vocal leaders. Especially in her role as a screener and a rebounder, she’s taking charge of the court.

“Ant is so unselfish, really easy to play with,” new guard Sydney White said. “She keeps our energy and intention straight and where we should be going.”

Emma-Nnopu averaged 9 points and 9.2 rebounds per game last season, and is the 11th-best returning offensive rebounder in the country.

Jackson called Emma-Nnopu an “X-factor who is really hard to prepare for” and said she’s excited to see her display other facets she’s added to her game.

WSU lost its two leading scorers from last year. Wing/forward Taylor Smith (12.9 ppg) is off to Gonzaga, and guard Kendra Parra (11.8 points) used her eligibility.

NEWCOMERS

The group of eight new players brings the team a new starting point guard and all of the aforementioned versatility and length.

White transfers to WSU after two seasons at Cal Baptist and is one of seven juniors on the squad. The 5-foot-9 player was a point guard in high school (two years at Mountain View in Orem, Utah, and two years in Colorado) but played bench shooting guard for CBU.

She says she’s excited to have the ball back in her hands, coming off screens and making a difference. She chose WSU because she wanted a coaching staff she thought would develop her as a player and was invested in her success.

“I’ve got so many good teammates around me; they’re easy to find, catch and shoot,” White said.

Though losing the talented Smith, Weber thinks it has two or more incoming players like her.

Junior wing/forward Paris Lauro (6-foot-1) comes to Ogden after two seasons at New Mexico. Coaches hope her strength and outside shooting will be a nice surprise for fans and opponents alike.

“She can shoot it, amongst other things,” Jackson said with a knowing smile. “She’s going to do a lot for us.”

Weber State is equally excited about junior guard/wing Hannah Robbins, who was teammates with Lauro for one season at New Mexico before transferring to Montana State last season. The unfortunate death of her brother “changed the dynamic” of her one season at MSU but now, she’s primed to get loose and put her talents on display in her fourth college season.

Robbins is a 6-foot guard who gives the kind of versatility on the guard line that Lauro can provide inside or outside.

Robbins, Lauro and White are three players Jackson feels are the core of boosting the team’s perimeter threat to take pressure off Billy to be the lone sharpshooter.

So, too, might Nicole Willardson, the 6-foot-4 junior from Utah Tech. The agile forward spent two years in southern Utah playing in a five-out system but Weber is getting her back to her roots in the post while utilizing her floor-stretching abilities.

“Good wingspan, can shoot it, plays super hard, coachable — she does a lot of the little things,” Jackson said. “Dynamic kid who is going to do well in our league.”

None of that includes junior wing/forward Makenna Shaffer-Lauer, a 6-foot-1 transfer from Buffalo. The former junior college player spent one season trying to find a role at Buffalo before hitting the portal. She was a first-team all-conference player at Florida Southwestern, averaging 12 points and 7.8 rebounds per game as a freshman while shooting 34.5% from the 3-point line.

Shaffer-Lauer and White, Jackson said, have really amped up WSU’s ability to guard across the court.

“Makenna Shaffer is doing a good job for us (defensively). She’s super long, mobile, versatile,” Jackson said. “One of many who make us more dynamic and harder to score on.”

The other “newcomer” from last season is sophomore forward Arizana Peaua. Arizana — the sister of Mata Peaua, who played as a WSU freshman last season and is leaving for missionary service to Tonga in November — returned from a mission in Tonga last year and grayshirted with the team for the last two months of the season. She spent her freshman college season at Westminster before missionary service.

INJURIES

ACLs are a banned topic around these parts, though, as Weber State will be without the services of three scholarship players this season with knee injuries.

Dakota Nap, a sophomore wing who scored 2.5 points last year as a freshman, is out with such a knee injury. So, too, is redshirt freshman Vanna Quintana, who was likely to carve out a role as backup point guard. The third is Celestine Segretain; a native of France, the Sacramento State transfer by way of Eastern Arizona College tore her ACL playing in France’s national three-on-three tournament this summer.

OTHER RETURNERS

Japrix Stubbs is on the other end of that, having torn her ACL early in the 2024-25 season. Stubbs (née Weaver), the former freshman All-American at Snow College in 2020-21, is a fifth-year sophomore. She served a mission to Hawaii, then played 2023-24 at Utah State-Eastern. The 6-foot guard has been cleared to play and is working back into full effort after appearing in two games last season.

Guard Fui Niumeitolu, an accomplished high school scorer in Utah, and wing/forward Maya Davis both return as freshmen after redshirting last season.

LATE, LOCAL ADDITION

After playing at Utah State-Eastern, Aly Coombs thought she was headed to a Division II program in the Midwest until her new head coach unexpectedly stepped down. The late change meant Coombs, a Fremont High alum, had returned home to enroll at Weber State to continue college, unsure if basketball was over for her.

WSU’s spate of ACL injuries, though, meant someone like Coombs could be useful, and the 5-foot-10 player is suiting up with the Wildcats this season. Coombs averaged 11.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per game as a senior at Fremont before averaging 3.1 points and 4.6 rebounds in 16 minutes per game at USU-E.

COACHING STAFF

Jackson, the Utah native, returns in her third year at the helm, with assistant Cydney McHenry also returning for her third season.

Two newcomers are former sharpshooting players themselves.

Nicole Yazzie, in her 13th season coaching, joins the staff as associate head coach. She comes to WSU after nine seasons at Utah Tech, with the last two as associate head coach there. She coached at Montana State-Northern and Corner Canyon High School before that. She has Westminster’s program record for made 3-pointers and career free-throw percentage. Yazzie and Jackson played two seasons together at Westminster.

Alli Winters joins the staff after two years as director of video and strategy for BYU women’s basketball. Before that, she worked eight seasons as a filmer, then video coordinator, then assistant video director for University of Utah football. As a player, she’s the best 3-point shooter by percentage in the history of four-year women’s college basketball in the state of Utah, going 130 of 262 (49.6%) in two seasons at Westminster.

Jordan Vasquez is in her second season on the bench as a director of basketball operations and assistant coach; she’s also still an active professional who will return to Australia in March to play. Kennedy Eskelson, who finished her college career after two seasons at Weber State, remains with the team and is a graduate assistant coach.

NUMERICAL ROSTER

0 — Maya Davis (R-Fr.)

1 — Vanna Quintana (R-Fr.)

2 — Aly Coombs (Jr.)

5 — Dakota Nap (So.)

7 — Antoniette Emma-Nnopu (Sr.)

8 — Hannah Robbins (Jr.)

10 — Paris Lauro (Jr.)

11 — Arizana Peaua (So.)

12 — Fui Niumeitolu (R-Fr.)

13 — Makenna Shaffer-Lauer (Jr.)

15 — Japrix Stubbs (So.)

22 — Sydney White (Jr.)

23 — Celestine Segretain (Jr.)

25 — Nicole Willardson (Jr.)

32 — Lanae Billy (Sr.)

SCHEDULE

Weber State spends most of November in the state of Utah and plays six home nonconference games, three against Division I opponents.