UMD Women’s Hoops Wants More After Successful 2021-2022 Season

UMD's first game is November 5th in Kansas City.

DULUTH, Minn.- Coming off a season in which they won the NSIC conference tournament and secured a berth in the National tournament.

UMD women’s basketball is ready to make a run at it again this season.

The Bulldogs return senior forward Brooke Olson as well as senior guard Maesyn Thiesen.

Both are suiting up for their 5th year at UMD.

Other than that, the Bulldogs will look to replace three starters.

Head Coach Mandy Pearson says it’s been an easy transition so far with eager sophomores and juniors from a year ago ready to take those spots.

“You know obviously you have the same leaders for three years and I was very comfortable. So it’s been good for me to develop different types of leadership relationships with other players. We have our 5th year’s Maesyn and Brooke who are unbelievable. I’ve seen our technically seniors, most of them will come back next year, stepping up big time and they’ve improved on the court. Their communication style has improved, their excitement has improved. We’re really seeing good things out of Ella Gilbertson and Taya Hakamaki in our junior class,” said Pearson.

One of Pearson’s leaders, Brooke Olson says this year’s all about going deep into the playoffs.

“The last three years we’ve made it to the conference championship every single year. We’ve won the last three out of the four. But we made it to the NCAA tournament and couldn’t get past round two. So we’re trying to get over that hump right now. We’re trying to figure out what we need to do to get to that level. I think it’s more so lighting a fire underneath us, trying to get us ready,” added Olson.

UMD’s first game is November 5th in Kansas City.