Women's Basketball | 10/30/2024 8:38:00 AM

• University of Central Missouri Jennies basketball is set to tip-off its 55th season with a pair of games in the D2CCA Tip-Off Classic Saturday, Nov. 2, and Sunday, Nov. 3, at the Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Mo. UCM is set to face preseason No. 22-ranked Southern Nazarene at 11:30 a.m. Saturday before taking on preseason No. 15-ranked Ferris State Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

• The 2024-25 Central Missouri Jennies welcome back two starters from last season's team that posted an overall record of 21-8 and a MIAA mark of 15-7. Starting guards Lauren Frost and Allie Clevenger are both back on the court for this season and will be joined by returners Shannon Karlin, Cierra Smith and Rylee Vierthaler.
• UCM welcomes six new student-athletes to the roster in high school freshmen Jolie Bonderer and Taylor Weishaar, and transfers Nicole Davis, Ashton Verhulst, Reese Schaaf and Callie Ziebell.
• Central Missouri has arguably one of the toughest schedules in NCAA Division II this season. UCM will face four teams ranked in the WBCA Division II Preseason Top 25 poll in Pittsburg State (No. 13), Ferris State (No. 15), Southern Nazarene (No. 22) and Fort Hays State (No. 23). In addition, the Jennies are slated to face seven teams that advanced to the NCAA tournament in 2023-24.
• UCM was picked fifth in the MIAA Preseason Coaches' Poll and sixth in the conference's preseason media poll.

• Jennies head coach Dave Slifer, now in his 21st season as the leader of the program, signed a four-year contract extension through the 2027-28 season in the summer of 2024.
• The contract is highly competitive in the MIAA and NCAA Division II and provides incentives for MIAA championships, postseason appearances and achievements, coach of the year awards, and academic achievement.
• Slifer has led Jennies basketball to 12 NCAA Division II postseason berths, including an NCAA-II National Championship in 2018 with the Jennies best record in program history, as well as four MIAA Championships and a pair of NCAA-II Central Region Titles.
• Among active head coaches, Slifer is the second winningest coach in Division II and ranks in the top 10 among all three divisions with his 805 career victories in 35 years as a head coach.
• He is the winningest coach in both Central Missouri and MIAA women's basketball history and enters 2024-25 with 421 wins in 20 seasons as head coach of the Jennies.

• The Jennies open their 2024-25 home schedule hosting the Central Regional Crossover Nov. 8-9 at the Jerry M. Hughes Athletics Center in Warrensburg. UCM will face Henderson State at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 8, for its season home opener before battling Concordia-St. Paul Saturday, Nov. 9, at 1:30 p.m. The other two games in the crossover will feature Missouri Southern vs. Concordia-St. Paul at 1:30 p.m. Friday and Missouri Southern vs. Henderson State at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
• Fans can purchase tickets for all Jennies basketball contests at UCMAthletics.com/tickets.