SEASON PREVIEW: Lady Panthers are Loaded with Returning Talent, Focused on Titles
 
By: Mike Bennett

The returns are certainly impressive for Drury coming into the 2026-27 women's basketball season.
 
The Lady Panthers have their complete starting lineup back, including first-team all-conference players Sara Mendel and Rhi Gibbons.
 
Combined with second-teamer Kaylee King, plus Jazz Gray and Sage Stratton, that lineup was the catalyst for a 13-2 finish last season. 
 
The Lady Panthers started at 8-6 and finished 21-8 – reaching 13 years in a streak of 20-plus victories.
 
The starters helped put up some lofty and even national leading statistics last season. For example, Mendel led NCAA Division II by converting on 67.1 of her field-goal attempts (the all-time Drury record). 
 
Also back are four of the top-five three-point shooters who helped the Lady Panthers rank No. 2 nationally at 38.0 percent. 
 
With three others who played in at least 27 games last season, the mix of experience and talent bodes well for big returns in other significant ways. Simply put, the team is hungry for championships again in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and a spot in the DII national tournament. 
 
The Lady Panthers came close to GLVC titles in the previous three seasons, so the feelings linger that there is unfinished business, especially for Mendel, Gibbons and Gray, who are all seniors.
 
"There is a sense of urgency. We have the right pieces, the right roster," says head coach Kaci Bailey, who took over before the 2023-24 season.
 
Her teams finished 25-7, 22-7 and 21-8 for a total of 68-22 overall. They were 18-4 (third), 17-3 (second) and 17-3 (third) during the regular seasons for the GLVC and advanced to one tournament final.
 
The Lady Panthers reached the NCAA Tournament in Bailey's first season.
 
"We all feel we've got the talent," she says about stepping up this season. "We just need to get it done."
 
Mendel and Gibbons agree.
 
"It definitely stings. It definitely puts a chip on your shoulder," says Mendel, a 6-foot-2 post player from Ava. "It would be so cool to do it."
 
And Gibbons: "We need to go back to where we belong, win that championship." 
 
Gibbons, a 5-9 redshirt senior guard from Nixa, is the only current player who has tasted a title as a Lady Panther.
 
That came as a freshman during the 2022-23 season, when Drury swept the GLVC, going 20-0 during the regular-season title and then winning the tournament championship.
 
Ironically, Bailey coached eighth-seeded Quincy University to a near-miss major upset of Drury in the first round of that tournament. The Lady Panthers squeaked through, 79-78.
 
Bailey was named Drury's coach shortly afterward when Amy Eagan left to take the job as coach of Lindenwood in its first season as an NCAA Division I program. Eagan took over the New Mexico program this year.
 
It was an easy decision for Gibbons to return for a fifth season: "I wanted to come back and win with them, get another chance. I love my teammates." 
 
She led the Lady Panthers with nearly 32 minutes per game last season. "I like to play a lot," she says. "I'll fight through it (when tired late in close games)."
 
She said it takes a mindset to win: "It's being tough, being confident and truly believing in ourselves."
 
The Lady Panthers open the regular season with five consecutive home games.
 
The first comes at 5:45 p.m. Friday against Fort Hays State in the GLVC/MIAA challenge. Drury then plays Pittsburg State at 7:45 p.m. Saturday.
 
Mendel is coming off a monster step-up season when she set school records by recording 20 double-doubles and hitting 67.1 percent of her field-goal attempts. 
 
She averaged 16.1 points and 10.1 rebounds.
 
The season before, she averaged 8.2 points and compiled six double-doubles. 
 
Mendel's other major achievements last season included:
– being selected to the All-Region second team.
– being named GLVC Player of the Week three times.
– being voted to the league's all-defensive team.
– being honored for academics by the conference and the College Sports Communicators.
 
Gibbons was a first-team all-league player for the second season in a row after averaging 14.5 points and 5.4 rebounds. She hit .431 of her field-goal attempts and .356 percent on treys.
 
She scored double figures in 28 of 29 games – and sat out much of the game in which she didn't after sustaining an in-game injury.
 
She was honored last spring with her fourth Academic All-GLVC.
 
King received second-team GLVC honors after averaging 10.9 points and converting an eye-opening .933 percent of her free throws (42 for 45). The 5-6 redshirt junior guard from Ellington, Mo., also led the team with 69 assists and 58 treys (40.8 percent).
 
Gray, a 5-8 guard from St. Louis, averaged 7.7 points and 2.9 rebounds last season. She tied for second on the team with 57 assists. 
 
Stratton, a 5-9 sophomore guard from Quincy, Ill., averaged 3.8 points and made 27 of 75 treys (36.0 percent).
 
ADDITIONAL RETURNERS

• Raegan Halliday - junior guard - Olathe, Kan. - averaged 5.1 points and 3.0 rebounds last season. She converted 21-for-44 on treys (47.7 percent).
• Teague Muncy - sophomore forward - Dale, Okla. - scored 53 points and made 74 rebounds in 27 games last season.
• Talia Norman - sophomore center - Alton, Ill. - scored 58 points and grabbed 45 rebounds in 27 games.
• Charlee Bailey - sophomore guard - Tipton, Mo. - played in six games and hit 2-for-6 on treys.
• Brooklyn Owens - redshirt freshman guard - Rogers, Ark. - averaged 5.3 points in three games.

 
Winning a title together would be special for Mendel and Gibbons, who fondly remember watching Lady Panthers legends play, attending camps and dreaming of playing in O'Reilly Family Events Center. 
 
It's "surreal" to be in her senior year, Mendel says. "Time is dwindling down. We have to come in and give it our all."
 
She and Gibbons take pride in mentoring young players and standing as positive examples of hard work and success. "We love the freshmen," Gibbons says. "We try to give advice and make them feel welcome. They have worked really well with us."
 
Mendel concurs: "They all came in with hard work, settled in real quick."
 
The six freshmen are: 6-0 forward Emma Akins from Mountain View, Ark., 5-7 guard Lucy Hafer from West Plains, 5-10 guard Audrey Arnold from Fulton, Mo., 5-9 guard Quinn Aldridge of Marshfield, Mo., 5-5 guard Josie Salazar from Springfield, and 5-9 guard Samantha Becker from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
 
"All the freshmen have the potential to play," Bailey says, noting that Becker, Quinn and Salazar have made strong early impressions. "We are deeper."
 
Drury's one transfer – Candela Roy, a 5-10 junior forward from Spain – is a strong candidate for playing time. "She's a gamer," Bailey says. "She adds length and goes and gets the ball. She has a knack for rebounding."
 
Drury plays its annual Hiland Dairy Kids Day morning game at 11 a.m. Nov. 18 against Arkansas-Fort Smith.
 
The Lady Panthers then host the eighth-annual Oasis Hotel & Convention Center Thanksgiving Classic with games against Saginaw Valley State on Nov. 24 and against Union on Nov. 25. Both are scheduled to start at 5:45 p.m.
 
"We have an extremely hard schedule," Bailey says, noting the non-conference games. "They will be a good measuring stick. (They) prepare us for the conference."
 
Drury opens GLVC play with a game on Nov. 30 at William Jewell.
 
The Lady Panthers received two first-place votes and were third with 171 points in the GLVC preseason poll.
 
Maryville, last season's tournament winner, had six first-place votes and led the poll with 186 points. Missouri-St. Louis also had six first-place votes and finished second with 183 points and six first-place votes. 
 
"It's going to be a tough conference," Bailey says.
 
Maryville returns first-team All-GLVC player Lindsey Schadewalt, a guard who averaged 14.4 points and 3.6 rebounds last season. She led the GLVC and finished sixth in DII with a 3-point percentage at .426.
 
Missouri-St. Louis returns Player of the Year Mara Rieder (19 ppg and 10.1 rpg) and freshman of the year Jayden Kuper (14.2 ppg and 7.2 rpg) to a team that won the regular-season title.
 
The Tritons were ranked 25th in the opening Division II poll. 
 
The GLVC Tournament will be held in St. Joseph, Mo., with the eight-team event scheduled for March 4-7 at the St. Joseph Civic Arena.
 
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