The 2024-25 Youngstown State's women's basketball team will begin the 50th season in program history and a new era under head coach Melissa Jackson on Monday by hosting North Dakota. Tipoff against the Fighting Hawks at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center is set for 5:30 p.m., and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and 1390 WNIO. The contest, which is the earliest opener on the calendar in program history, is part of a doubleheader with the YSU men's basketball program to begin 2024-25.
Gameday Info
YSU vs. North Dakota
Tickets, Promotions & Fan Information
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- Advance tickets for Monday's game are available online through YSUsports.com or by calling (330) 941-1978. The Beeghly Center Ticket Office and gates will open at 4:30 p.m. on Monday.
- Promotions
- YSU Schedule Magnet giveaway, courtesy of Compco, HBK, FastTrac and 21 WFMJ
- Food Can Drive - Bring a canned good to support YSU Athletics' Penguin Pantry drive and receive a $5 GA ticket
- Halftime Show - Performance Dogs of Ohio, presented by Balto Raw
A Glimpse at the Guins
- The Penguins made their NCAA debut in the 1975-76 season, and 2024-25 presents plenty of newness in the program's storied history. Along with Jackson and four new assistant coaches on the bench, there are 10 newcomers in the program and plenty of changes inside Beeghly Center. The arena is now named Zidian Family Arena, and new chairback seats and upgrades to the sound system and videoboard present an improved gameday experience for student-athletes and fans.
- While there are plenty of differences compared to this time a year ago, fifth-year senior Malia Magestro is certainly no stranger to the Penguins uniform, the home gym or the fans in the Youngstown area. The Hermitage, Pa., native has played in 106 games as a Penguin, and she enters the season needing 20 points to become the 24th player in program history to reach 1,000.
- Magestro is one of five returners from last year's team that went 14-18 overall and 9-11 in Horizon League play while winning a game in the conference tournament. Magestro and fourth-year senior Haley Thierry are the lone players remaining on the roster from the 2021-22 squad that shared the league's regular-season title. Junior Abby Liber and sophomores Abbie Davidson and Bella Samz are the additional returners.
- The large group of talented newcomers includes four transfers, three of which come from the Division I level, and six freshmen. Many are expected to have significant roles in 2024-25.
- Youngstown State has enjoyed tremendous success at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. The Penguins have had a winning record at home in 11 of the last 12 seasons, and they are 67-27 on Rosselli Court since the start of the 2018-19 campaign.
Youngstown State vs. North Dakota
A Win Would...
- Improve YSU's record to 29-21 in season openers.
- Give the Penguins nine wins in their last 13 season openers.
- Be the first at YSU for Head Coach Melissa Jackson and her 73rd career victory.
Scouting North Dakota
- North Dakota enters the season with nine returners from last year's squad that went 9-21 overall and 5-11 in Summit League play. The Fighting Hawks, who are beginning their fifrth season under the direction of program alum Mallory Bernhard, were picked seventh in the Summit League's preseason poll.
- North Dakota brings back two players who averaged double figures last season, forwards Kiyah Hurst and Kiera Pemberton. Hurst, a 5-foot-11 junior, averaged 12.4 points and made a team-high 38 3-pointers last season, and Pemberton, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, averaged 10.5 points and led the team with 6.6 rebounds. Of the 15 players on North Dakota's roster, 11 of them are 5-foot-11 or taller.
- The Fighting Hawks have six newcomers, including five true freshman. The other newcomer is junior Walker Demers, a transfer from South Dakota who averaged 6.0 points and 4.1 rebounds for the Coyotes in 2023-24.
Series History and Matchup Notes
Overall: First Meeting
- Youngstown State and North Dakota are meeting on the hardwood for the first time in program history on Monday.
- While North Dakota competes in the Summit League and Youngstown State is a Horizon League member in basketball, both schools' football teams are both members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. YSU beat the Fighting Hawks at Stambaugh Stadium 41-40 on Oct. 26.
YSU vs. Summit League Teams: Youngstown State is 19-8 all-time against teams that are currently in the Summit League. The Penguins were members of the Mid-Continent Conference, which is now the Summit League, for nine seasons from 1992-93 through 2000-01 before moving to the Horizon League. YSU is 14-3 all-time against Kansas City and 5-5 against Oral Roberts, which were members of the Mid-Con at the same time as the Penguins. Youngstown State won the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament three times in its nine seasons in the conference, and it won the regular season championship in five consecutive seasons from 1994-95 through 1998-99.
News & Notes
Penguins to Begin 50th Season
This is the 50th season for Youngstown State women's basketball as an NCAA program. The Penguins began NCAA play in the 1975-76 season, with the first game coming on Jan. 17, 1976, at Oberlin. YSU moved up to the Division I level in the 1982-83 season, and it has members of the Ohio Valley Conference, the Mid-Continent Conference and the Horizon League. The Horizon has been the Penguins' home since 2001-02. YSU earned NCAA Tournament berths in 1996, 1998 and 2000, and it has played in the Women's NIT four times and the Women's Basketball Invitational twice.
Jackson Takes the Reigns as Program's Ninth Head Coach
Melissa Jackson, a veteran who has spent the last 16 years in Northeast Ohio, is in her first season as Youngstown State's head coach. Jackson helped Cleveland State win the Horizon League regular-season title in 2023-24, and she spent the previous 15 seasons at Akron. She was an assistant or associate head coach for the first decade, and she served as the Zips' head coach from the 2018-19 through 2022-23 seasons. She holds the best career winning percentage by a head coach at .511 (72-69) in Akron's history. Jackson is the ninth head coach at Youngstown State.
YSU Men Also Have New Leader: While Jackson was chosen as the new head coach of YSU's women's program, the men's basketball team also has a new leader in Ethan Faulkner. Faulkner was elevated from the role as Associate Head Coach on April 1, which was 18 days after Jackson was announced. This is just the second time, with the 1982-83 season being the other, that both the men's and women's programs have a new coach to start a season.
Familiar, New Faces on Jackson's Staff
The five coaches tasked with assisting head coach Melissa Jackson include Peyton Booth, Courtney Davidson, Shayna Gore, Jason Pacanowski and Logan Miller. Davidson, a Youngstown native who was one of the best players of her generation at Ursuline High School, is in her third stint at YSU. She was the program's Director of Operations in 2013-14, and she returned as an assistant coach for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, which both ended in postseason tournaments. Pacanowski is in his sixth season with the women's program, having served as the Director of Operations and the Director of Player Personnel. Booth is new to YSU as an assistant coach, but she is entering her fourth season alongside Jackson. Gore is an assistant coach and the program's recruiting coordinator, and Miller is a graduate assistant on the staff.
Magestro Headlines Returning Group
Malia Magestro is entering her fifth season as a Penguin, and she brings 106 games of experience to a squad featuring many new faces. Magestro has averaged at least 10 points and made at least 42 3-pointers in three straight seasons, and she enters the season with 980 career points. That represents 74% of the total number of career points scored at YSU by the roster entering the season. The list of returners also includes senior Haley Thierry, junior Abby Liber, and sophomores Abbie Davidson and Bella Sama. Thierry and Liber both played in all 32 games last season and combined to make 16 starts. Magestro and Thierry are the only two players on the roster who were Penguins before the 2023-24 campaign.
Ten Newcomers Join Program
Youngstown State has 10 newcomers on the first roster of the Melissa Jackson era. Four of the 10 are transfers who joined the program after Jackson was hired, and six are true freshmen who signed in November.
Transfers: The group of transfers in 2024-25 includes Division I transfers Faith Burch (Cleveland State), Dacia Lewandowski (Akron) and Jewel Watkins (Charlotte), plus junior college transfer Xoe Rosalez. Jackson coached Burch in 2023-24 at Cleveland State, and she was the head coach at Akron when Lewandowski signed to play with the Zips. Watkins caught Jackson's eye when the player scored 20 points as a sophomore at Coppin State when Eagles played Akron. Watkins is a senior, Burch is a redshirt-junior, Rosalez is a true junior, and Lewandowski is a redshirt-freshman.
Freshmen: Six of the seven freshmen who signed with Youngstown State in November remained committed to the program. The group originally committed when John Barnes was the head coach and signed when John Nicolais was serving as acting head coach during Barnes' leave to focus on personal family matters. The group includes Ohioans Danielle Cameron, Sophia Gregory and Erica King; Kentucky natives Sarah Baker and Hayden Barrier; and Ashlynn Van Tassell from West Virginia. Van Tassell will miss the season due to a lower body injury.
Penguins Slotted Fifth in Horizon League Preseason Poll
Youngstown State was picked to finish fifth in the 2024-25 Under Armour Horizon League Preseason Coaches poll that was announced in mid-October. The poll had distinct groupings of teams, and the Penguins were at the top of the third group. Cleveland State received seven first-place votes and 117 points overall, and Green Bay had the other four first-place votes and received 114 points to be slotted second. The next tier had Purdue Fort Wayne in third with 98 points and Milwaukee in fourth with 85 points. Only 10 points separated the next grouping as Youngstown State had 63 points, Wright State had 58, and Northern Kentucky had 53. The bottom group of four teams included Detroit Mercy with 39 points, Oakland with 38, IU Indianapolis with 36 and Robert Morris with 25.
Beeghly Center Upgrades in Offseason
Beeghly Center underwent several fan and student-athlete-focused upgrades in the offseason, and the arena has been rebranded as Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center to honor the benevolence of the Tom Zidian Family. The most noticeable upgrade is the seating project as new chairback seats were installed along the sidelines in the lower and upper bowls. Court-level seating was also added, and upgrades were made to the videoboard and sound system. In addition, YSU has named the south lobby the Fred & Lucy Moran/Window World Lobby. The upper reserved chairback seating sections on the east side of the arena have been named for the Hendricks and Kerola families. Similarly, the new floor seating has been named thanks to the continued support of the Spiegel Family. Additional contributions have provided new naming opportunities for The Jack Colonna Women's Basketball Locker Room, The Sperry Rongone Women's Basketball Lounge and The JP Daliman Men's Basketball Head Coach's Office.
Four Home Games Start 2024-25 Slate
Monday's game against North Dakota begins a four-game homestand at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center to start the 2024-25 campaign. The Penguins will also play Lake Erie (Nov. 8), St. Bonaventure (Nov. 12) and Mercyhurst (Nov. 19) during the opening stretch, and their next four contests will be on the road. YSU's Horizon League opener will be on Dec. 4 against Milwaukee, and the Penguins will play at Ohio State on Dec. 14. The Mercyhurst game will be the first of three games in November that will begin at 11 a.m. for the Penguins, who will also play at 11 a.m. at Ohio State to make it four morning contests in their first 11 games of 2024-25.
Magestro Looking for Strong Finish to Career
Malia Magestro is looking to finish her five-year career at Youngstown State on a high note, and she could reach an important milestone quickly. Magestro needs just 20 points to become the 24th Penguin to reach 1,000. She has shown her scoring versatility as one of just two players in program history to make 150 career 3-pointers and 200 career free throws. Magestro was YSU's top-scoring guard in Horizon League play last season at 11.8 points per game. She made a team-high 54 free throws against league opponents, and she ranked fourth in the circuit with an .818 free-throw percentage. Magestro has averaged between 10.0 and 10.2 points in each of the last three seasons.
Penguins Post Nation's Top GPA in 2023-24
Already rich with a history of academic success, Youngstown State's women's basketball program reached a new pinnacle by achieving the highest grade-point average in the country during the 2023-24 season. The Penguins led all 360 Division I programs with a 3.868 GPA during the academic year to hold the top spot on the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Academic Top 25. YSU has ranked among the top 25 programs in the nation in GPA in 13 of the last 14 seasons, which no other program has matched.
Five Comprise Leadership Council
Five student-athletes make up Youngstown State's Leadership Council in 2024-25. The group features returners Abby Liber and Malia Magestro, and newcomers Faith Burch, Dacia Lewandowski and Jewel Watkins. Magestro is a fifth-year senior who has spent her entire career at YSU, and Liber is a junior entering her second season as a Penguin. Watkins is a senior transfer from Charlotte, Burch is a redshirt-junior who transferred from Cleveland State, and Lewandowski is a redshirt-freshman who transferred from Akron.
