— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall women’s basketball ended last season on a high note, defeating Illinois State before a sellout crowd at the Cam Henderson Center to win the WNIT title.
In the process, the Herd set a single season record for wins by finishing 28-9 in Juli Fulks’ second season as head coach.
What will Marshall do for an encore?
That journey starts Friday when the Thundering Herd plays host to the University of Pikeville in a 6 p.m. exhibition.
The Bears are a NAIA-level program that finished 16-14 last season, including 14-6 within the Appalachian Athletic Conference.
Among its 14-player roster, Marshall has seven returning players and seven newcomers.
The key returners are Olivia Olson and Leyocha Marigney.
Olson is a sophomore whose promising freshman season was cut short due to a knee injury. She played in 16 games and averaged 12.9 points while sinking 42 three-pointers. The highlight of Olson’s season was a 26-point performance in an overtime win over James Madison.
She was a double-figure scorer in 13 games.
A 6-foot-3 senior from Fresno, Calif., Marigney led Marshall last season with 56 blocks, the fourth most in a season in program history. She also averaged 3.1 points and 2.9 rebounds.
Newcomers Cassie Gallagher, Anaya Harris and Maddie Moody figure to play prominent roles for Fulks’ team.
Gallagher is a redshirt sophomore who transferred from USC Upstate and led the Spartans in scoring last season at 15.7 points, while earning second-team All-Big South Conference honors.
Harris was also a second-team All-Big South honoree after her 2025-26 season as a junior at Gardner-Webb. Harris led the Runnin’ Bulldogs with 12.8 points on average and started all 30 of the team’s games.
Maddie Moody transferred from Northern Kentucky after she made 32 appearances with 29 starts for the Norse. Moody averaged 10 points and 6.5 rebounds and was named to the Horizon League All-Freshman Team.
Moody and Gallagher both played against Marshall last season. Moody scored seven points in the Herd’s 68-53 win over Northern Kentucky, and Gallagher scored 11 points in Marshall’s 85-54 against USC Upstate.
Marshall plays its second exhibition on October 27 against Kentucky Christian. The regular season starts November 2 when Marshall plays at Massachusetts in the Mid-American Conference-Sun Belt Challenge.
The home opener is November 6 at against North Carolina A&T.