The two-week NCAA Transfer Portal window officially closed at midnight Tuesday morning and, against substantial odds, Cleveland State already has the foundation of its 2026-27 roster.
New head coach Bob Dunn mentioned at his introductory press conference last Wednesday that retaining the Vikings’ six portal entrants was a priority. He appears to have been very successful at that mission, as On3’s Talia Goodman reports that half of those departures – Queen Ruffin, Hanna Medina Kajevic, and Paula Pique – have withdrawn their names from the portal, signaling their likely return to CSU next season.
For context, according to WBB Blog, 1,534 Division I players entered the transfer portal after the 2024-25 season. Of that number, just 53 (3.5 percent) ultimately withdrew from the portal and returned to their previous school as a student-athlete. Dunn’s recovery of half of his portalers, though helped along by his continuity from the previous staff, is a significant haul.
Ruffin, of course, missed nearly all of the 2025-26 season after suffering an injury early in the opener against Chicago State. However, she proved capable as an occasional starter at Indiana State two years ago, when she connected on 36.8 percent of her three-point attempts and averaged 4.5 points per game. Before her injury, she was set to be CSU’s third guard, spelling the starting duo of Colbi Maples and Jada Leonard.
To some extent, Ruffin’s injury meant more minutes than planned for Kajevic, a freshman this past season. That playing time was often pretty sheltered, or the result of severe foul trouble, but she did manage to appear in 22 games and participate for eight or more minutes in four blowout wins.
As of right now, Pique is set to be Cleveland State’s most experienced returner. The Barcelona, Spain native began her career at Abilene Christian, then started 17 games for the Vikings as a sophomore. She’s a defensive ace who is versatile enough to play at both the two and the three – though it ended up being mostly the two by the latter stages of the season, another downstream effect of Ruffin’s injury – and averaged 1.5 steals per game. Pique also has a way of saving her offense for the perfect moments, including massive shots and double-digit scoring efforts against Cal State Fullerton and Middle Tennessee State, two of CSU’s most significant wins of the year.
Freshman guard Sur Lozano, another Spaniard, was the Vikings’ only player with remaining eligibility who never entered the portal. She’ll look to factor into the rotation after appearing in nine games as a rookie.
Pique’s return also means that Cleveland State is likely to retain her sister, Emma, who signed with the Vikings back in November. She averaged 14.4 points and 3.3 assists per game in 2025-26 at the junior college level, with Wyoming’s Northwest College. Indications are that CSU will also be able to hang on to its other fall signee, 6-6 center Addie Carr, a soon-to-be graduate of Hickman High School in Missouri.
On the other side of things, Leonard signed with Horizon League rival Youngtown State out of the portal on Monday. The Bronx native, the third CSU-to-YSU transfer over the last three years (Faith Burch and Paulina Hernandez being the others), ranked 21st nationally in steals, while also averaging 12.0 points per game.
That leaves starters Sarah Hurley and Macey Fegan as the Vikings’ only portal entrants with unsettled fates.
Nevertheless, and rather abruptly, Cleveland State seems to have roughly half of its roster for the coming season set, an unlikely development as recently as a week ago.
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