Makenna Marisa’s had one of the most-accomplished careers for a Penn State women’s basketball player over the last half-decade, but there’s been one glaring omission from the Pittsburgh point guard’s college resume.
Her Lady Lions haven’t had a winning season since she’s been here.
Still, Marisa isn’t feeling anxiety as she approaches her final collegiate campaign.
“No pressure. A lot of excitement,” Marisa said.
Marisa’s attitude reflected that of her coach, Carolyn Kieger, and many of her teammates as the Lady Lions met with the press for media day on Tuesday at the Bryce Jordan Center before trying to improve last year’s 14-17 mark in the unforgiving landscape of the Big Ten.
The Lady Lions host Bucknell on Nov. 7 to open the season.
“Our team is fired up. We’re ready to put this program back on the map,” said Kieger, whose efforts have her with a 41-73 record as she’s had to navigate COVID and the advent of the transfer portal and NIL while rebuilding. “We’ve been hard at work for the last four years developing this culture and developing the habits needed to win at a high and elite level.
“I believe we’re there.”
Although half the roster is comprised of newcomers from the transfer portal, the optimism is spurred by a backcourt that, at least on paper, looks good enough to compete with anyone in the conference and hopefully a toughness that Kieger has addressed in the past as a quality that had been lacking.
“We finally have the pieces in play that we believe stylistically fit and also versatility fit and just balance and depth,” Kieger said.
This will be a team that plays a lot of small ball, using four and almost certainly at some point even five guards on the floor at once. It will pressure on defense and try to play 94-foot games.
“We’re going to be a fast team this year,” said 5-10 junior guard Leilani Kapinus, one of the better defenders in the Big Ten and a player who physically could match up with bigger players down low despite her height.
Before opening the session up for all its players, Penn State brought out four players to address the press in the media room, and all four were guards: Marisa, Kapinus, sophomore sharpshooter Shay Ciezki and graduate student Ashley Owusu, a transfer from Virginia Tech who Kieger said is a magician with the ball in her hands.
In 2021, Owusu was a third-team all-American and the winner of the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award signifying her as the best shooting guard in the country while she played for Maryland.
She was one of the most sought-after players in the transfer portal that offseason, but things didn’t work as planned for Owusu at Virginia Tech, where she only averaged 5.1 points last season.
She arrives at Penn State hoping to be the final piece in Kieger’s winning puzzle.
“I think I have a lot to prove alongside my teammates and along with this program,” Owusu said. “That’s why I chose to come here.”
With Owusu’s ability to initiate the offense, that should free up Marisa to focus more on her scoring. Third in program history with seven 30-point games and a first-team all-Big Ten pick last season, Marisa’s led the Lady Lions in scoring each of the last three years, is eighth all-time in career scoring average and recently was put on the watch list for the Nancy Lieberman Award for the best point guard in the country.
Ciezki averaged 11.8 points as a freshman and shot 41.6% from 3-point range. Kapinus collected 11.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per outing and was chosen to the conference’s all-defensive team.
The Lady Lions are proven on the perimeter beyond those players, though. A player Kieger recruited while at Marquette, graduate student Tay Valladay averaged 9.7 points and started 51 games at Virginia, where she was known as a tenacious defender. Junior Jayla Oden played 50 games and drew 18 starts at Illinois over the last two years.
“I know it’s going to be a great season for us,” Marisa said. “I feel very confident this year.”
Also in the mix is 6-1 Alli Campbell, a former top-25 national recruit who has had her time at Penn State sidetracked by a couple of injuries after transferring from Notre Dame.
“Having the game taken away is hard. Bouncing back is what it is all about,” said Campbell, a redshirt junior who grew up 40 minutes down I-99 in Altoona.
Campbell grew up playing guard, but, because of her height and the Lady Lions lack of overall size, she’s probably going to have to play some forward this winter.
Ali Brigham seems to be the likely fifth starter with Marisa, Kapinus, Owusu and Ciezki. The 6-4 senior shot 65.3% from the floor in 2022-23, and Kieger raved about her improvement in the offseason.
Brigham’s contribution will be key, because there’s not a great deal of height along with her. Graduate student Chanaya Pinto jokes that she’s “6-2 on a good day.” The Lady Lions also dipped into the transfer portal to add 6-2 Grace Hall from LSU and 6-2 Kylie Lavelle from Drexel – Lavelle played with another new Lady Lion there, guard Moriah Murray.
Statistically, Penn State was virtually even in all categories with its opponents last year except rebounding, where it was outboarded by 3.0 per game.
However, that didn’t stop the Lady Lions from upending Minnesota in the opening round of last year’s Big Ten Tournament for Kieger’s first postseason win at Penn State. In the next game, playing without an injured Ciezki, the Lady Lions almost upset Michigan before falling 63-61.
“That motivated us a lot, especially the way it ended,” said Pinto, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds over those two contests. “It made everybody hungry. I’m hungry to go back and drive again and show everybody I can play in March.”
The appetite for postseason success is waiting to be satiated. In just a few days, Lady Lion fans will get to see in person whether Kieger and company have the right recipe.
“I feel this is the year that all the hard work and all the blood, sweat and tears and all of the hard work that went into the last four years is going to come to fruition,” Kieger said.
“The most important thing to me,” Marisa said, “is winning.”
