Normally, when a team loses 85% of its scoring and minutes played, that team is likely to be projected to be towards the bottom of a conference. Those teams aren’t Green Bay, though. Instead, for the Phoenix, it will be another season with a loaded non-conference schedule and the expectation, not goal, of winning the league and returning to the NCAA Tournament for a third straight season.
In Year 1, head coach Kayla Karius inherited a roster that had just gone after winning the Horizon League Tournament and returned to “the Dance” after a brief hiatus. Green Bay embraced a mantra of “Pressure is a Privilege,” winning the regular season title and the conference tournament. Karius calls that first season a “dream come true.” So how do you follow it up? After losing such a talented group of seniors, the Phoenix went deep into the transfer portal, committing some “Horizon on Horizon crime”, and a number of homecoming stories to bolster their roster. The reload was on. Adding immediate impact players was a focus for Karius and her staff: “we needed to bring in players who could produce right now. And this isn’t a situation where we can go bring in five or six freshmen and expect them to all be ready to go.”
Looking at the newcomers, while they may not have been in Green Bay jerseys prior to this season, many have played here in some capacity before. Starting first with that Horizon-onHorizon crime, there may not be a bigger name added than Maddy Skorupski, who previously played for the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, and earned an All-Horizon Second Team nod after averaging 16.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, and a league leading 2.8 steals per game. The Phoenix also nabbed a sister act from the Panthers, landing Kamy and Kallie Peppler.
The other transfers, while not coming from within the league, are certainly familiar with Green Bay basketball. One of the earliest transfers was former Wisconsin Badgers forward Gracie Grzesk. Grzesk, of course, is the daughter of former men’s basketball star Gary Grzesk and former Phoenix assistant Liz Grzesk. Gracie brings her own pedigree, having played at Notre Dame Academy in Green Bay in her prep days, leading the Tritons to 3 WIAA state championships.
Also coming in is Carley Duffney, a senior forward coming over from Karius’ last stop at South Dakota. Duffney is also a Green Bay native, having played her high school ball at Preble High School, before joining the Coyotes. In her final season with South Dakota, Duffney averaged 10.9 points per game, including a 24 point performance against Oral Roberts. The last transfer coming in is another Green Bay area native, Lily Hansford, who played her high school ball at Appleton East. Hansford started her career in the PAC 12 playing for Oregon State, where she averaged 5.1 points per game and led the conference in 3 point percentage. She came a bit closer to home for her junior season, playing for Iowa State, where she remained a sharpshooting threat.
While Green Bay did add a lot from the portal, they also added a pair of freshmen to this roster. First, a rare deviation from the typical roster makeup, Madison Hoffmann from Grayslake, Illinois. Hoffmann averaged 12.6 points per game in her senior campaign, where she was selected as All State First Team by the IBCA, and All Area First Team by the Chicago Tribune.
The other Phoenix freshman is a name that is another sister connection, Kristina Ouimette, younger sister of Julianna Ouimette. A storied career at Lakeland Union in Minocqua, Wisconsin, the younger Ouimette set school records for the most points in a season, most made threes in a game, most made threes in a season, and most made threes in a career.
With two pairs of sisters currently and another set on the way in the 2026 class, it is natural to wonder if that is intentional or coincidence, something Karius certainly had a joke for: “why recruit 14 families when you can recruit 12 families?” She later added, “I think it’s a little bit coincidence, but we love it. I’ve been a part of, like you said, when I played, we had a couple sets of sisters and if that works, if the sisters can get along and be teammates, in some case, actually in both cases, now the sisters are roommates. So you’re spending quite a bit of time together. That has to work. You have to make sure with each sister that that’s going to work. But I think it creates this great family atmosphere.”
Of course, Green Bay returns a number of players, having not lost a single player in the transfer portal. In fact, Green Bay is just one of five programs across the country to have not had a player transfer out in the last two seasons. One of the top returning players for the Phoenix will be Jenna Guyer, who was a big presence coming off the bench for the Phoenix last season. Guyer set a career high with a 22 point performance against Northern Kentucky early in the conference season, also hitting a number of other career highs throughout the season. Karius has high expectations for Guyer in her senior season: “I think a lot of people know that she’s very talented offensively, but to take the steps that she did defensively made us so much better, but she believed that she could do that.
She had great teammates pushing her and it’s really exciting now to see the year ahead that she could have, because I think she’ll be a big cornerstone of our team.”
The Phoenix will be awaiting the return of Marin Westin, who appeared in the first 11 games of the season, before an injury cut her season short. Also returning will be Julianna Ouimette, Meghan Schultz, Sophie Lahti, and Ellie Buzzelle. Karius is thankful for the returning pieces of the roster: “We hope that the culture remains the same. That was our goal. The six returners had a job to do from March all the way through into June.Their job was to carry on the ‘Green Bay Way.’ And as an alum myself, I know how important that is. And we live it. We talk about it all the time. So they had a job to do. And I think that they did their job really well.”
The sky really feels like the limit with this group. It is a new roster, but with plenty of familiarity. Karius is certainly amped up for the season: “We love the pieces that we have. We’re going to pour into them and help them get better and help them get connected.” Green Bay will face a daunting non-conference schedule with two matchups against preseason ranked teams, Kansas State and North Carolina State, as well as a pair of Big Ten Conference opponents in Washington and Wisconsin. There will also be a target on Green Bay’s back across the Horizon League. The team to beat if you want to win the league. The Phoenix seem poised to rise to the challenge. Practices are already underway, and Green Bay is set to tip off what they hope to be the start of a third straight NCAA Tournament qualifying season on November 3rd, when the Phoenix host UW-Stevens Point.
Preview Week 2025-26
MBB: Preseason Poll | Preseason All-League | Preseason Awards
WBB: Preseason Poll | Preseason All-League | Preseason Awards
Cleveland State (MBB | WBB) | Detroit Mercy (MBB | WBB) | Green Bay (MBB | WBB) | IU Indy (MBB | WBB)
Milwaukee (MBB | WBB) | Northern Kentucky (MBB | WBB) | Oakland (MBB | WBB) | Purdue Fort Wayne (MBB | WBB)
Robert Morris (MBB | WBB) | Wright State (MBB | WBB) | Youngstown State (MBB | WBB)
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