Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Millersville

Brenna Ortwein

Women's basketball eyes fourth seed as Marauders host Shepherd on Senior Day

2/28/2025 2:45:00 PM

By: Wes Champlin, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

COVERAGE LINKS

  • Series vs. Shepherd: 14–5
  • Series Streak: W5
  • First Meeting: W, 66–52 (Dec. 5, 1989)
  • Last Meeting: W, 62–53 (Jan. 11, 2025)
  • Last 10 Meetings: 5–5
  • Most ‘Ville Points: 88
  • Record at home: 6–2
  • Kira Mowen vs. Shepherd: 3–0
  • Julie Kaufman vs. Millersville: 0–5

ABOUT THE GAME

  • It's Senior Day in Pucillo Gymnasium as the Millersville Marauders (15–12, 10–10) host the last-place Shepherd Rams (7–20, 4–16) in the Marauders' final game of the regular season. Graduate students Sophia Elstone and Juliana Vinluan, as well as seniors Makiah Shaw and Brenna Ortwein will be honored for their time at the university. 

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

  • Millersville enters this final game of the regular season tied with East Stroudsburg for fifth in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference's (PSAC) East Division at 10–10 in conference play after dropping back-to-back games against Lock Haven and West Chester. Above the Marauders in the standings are West Chester (3rd, 11–9) and Bloomsburg (4th, 11–10). The Marauders have a chance to make it up to the fourth seed in one specific scenario: if East Stroudsburg loses and Bloomsburg, Millersville and West Chester all finish with 11 wins, then those 11-win teams would finish 3-4-5 in that order. In every other scenario, Millersville would end up as the fifth or sixth seed. The third and fourth seeds host first-round playoff games while the teams in fifth or sixth must go on the road. The scenario in which the Marauders finish as the fourth seed is likely because of the matchups; Millersville hosts last-place Shepherd, West Chester hits the road to take on first-place Kutztown, East Stroudsburg hosts first-place Lock Haven and Bloomsburg has the day off.
  • Senior Makiah Shaw became the 22nd player to reach 1,000 career points as a Marauder earlier this season and has spent her fourth and final season at the 'Ville climbing the team's all-time list multiple categories. She's 15th in program history in scoring with 1,133 points and 15th in field goals made with 451. The sweet-shooting forward's tied for 11th in field goal percentage at 44.5% and 15th in block shots with 84. Shaw falls just short of the qualifying mark for free throw percentage (currently at 1.96 ftm/gm, needs 2 ftm/gm), but would rank first in program history with her mark of 79.4%. Shaw's been a model of durability, having never missed a game in her entire Marauder career; the last time Millersville women's basketball hit the floor without her was before the COVID-19 pandemic (it was Feb. 29, 2020, a span of 1,827 days and over five years).
  • Brenna Ortwein has brought a similar durability and tenacity to the Marauders throughout her four seasons competing in front of the Marauder faithful. She's been as impactful on the defensive end as Shaw's been on the offensive end, totaling 210 steals and 634 rebounds in her career. Those marks rank 11th and 10th in team history, and she's also in the top 20 in assists as well (17th). Ortwein's played in 113 of a possible 114 games as a Marauder and has started 112 of those including 82 straight dating back to her freshman campaign. She's on pace to lead the team in rebounding average for the third time in four seasons and would be the ninth in program history to do so. This season, the senior guard has upped her game on the defensive end and ranks fifth in the PSAC in steals per game at 2.5 while consistently defending the most potent perimeter threat on the other team.
  • Sophia Elstone enters her fourth season with head coach Kira Mowen after transferring to Millersville from Knox College before last season. Since then, she's started 56 of 57 games while not missing a single one. She's averaged 6.0 PPG in that span and led the team in three-point percentage in 2023-24 (39.4%). Elstone's also made an impact defensively, averaging greater than a steal per game while pulling down nearly four rebounds as well.
  • Juliana Vinluan followed a similar path to Elstone and is in the midst of her fourth year under Mowen as well. She's played in 52 games in two seasons as a Marauder and started one, a win over Mercyhurst on Dec. 19, 2023. Her best game in Millersville was last season's double-overtime affair against Cal U on Dec. 1, 2023; Vinluan tallied 11 points in 20 minutes of play and added three assists against the nationally-ranked Vulcans. The graduate student's positive energy has reverberated through the team ever since she stepped foot in the 'Ville.

SCOUTING THE RAMS

  • It has been a rough season for the Shepherd Rams, who will finish either last or in a tie for last in the East Division for the third straight season. They enter this game having won three of their last five games after going 1–14 in conference play prior to Feb. 8. All three of those victories came at home, where the Rams have a 7–7 mark. In stark contrast, they are 0–12 on the road this season, something that bodes well for the Marauders in this one.
  • That record starts to make a little more sense when considering just how young the team is; junior guard Annie Hunt is the lone upperclassman that has started more than one game this season. Senior Jordan Carr is the only other upperclassman that appears regularly, and the only one to appear in all 27 games. 
  • Sophomore Kara Wehner leads the offensive attack along with freshman forward Lamaria Estridge. Wehner shoots in volume from the three, averaging over four attempts per game while averaging 9.4 PPG. She's also the Rams's floor general, averaging a team-high 2.6 assists per game. Estridge has been a bit of a revelation for the Rams as she winds down her rookie campaign; she's started each of the last seven games (excluding Senior Day on Feb. 26) and has tallied more than 10 points four times in that span. She had a stretch of seven games in a row where she tallied 10 or more points from Jan. 8 to Feb. 1. 

SERIES HISTORY

  • This is the shortest rivalry that Millersville has with any of the current PSAC East teams, as these two programs have only met 19 times in total leading to a 14–5 record in favor of Millersville. They began meeting twice a year beginning in the 2020 season. Millersville downed the Rams in Shepherdstown by a score of 62–53 on Jan. 11 of this year, a game that the Marauders led in handily for the first three quarters before a sloppy fourth quarter made it a game once more. Kali March had her most memorable moment as a Marauder in that one, knocking down a dagger three with 1:14 to go that put the game away. 

PSAC ROUNDUP

  • The PSAC enters its final weekend of play with just three of the 12 playoff seeds decided, and none of those are in the Eastern Division. At the top of the East, Lock Haven and Kutztown are tied with 13–7 records. The final four spots will go to Bloomsburg, Millersville, West Chester and East Stroudsburg in an order that will be set in stone this weekend. Just one game separates that quartet, so tiebreakers will be massive in deciding the seeding.
  • In the West, the fourth through sixth seeds have gone to IUP, California (Pa.) and Clarion in that order. #18 Seton Hill and Edinboro are tied atop the division at 16–3 while #24 Gannon is one back of that pair at 15–4. 
Loading...

Upcoming Schedule

{{ moment(game.date).format('MMM D, YYYY') }} {{ game.time ? 'at ' + game.time : '' }}
{{ game.sport.title }} {{ game.location_indicator === 'A' ? 'at' : 'vs' }}
{{ game.opponent.title }}

Related Videos

Now Playing: