GREEN BAY, Wis. - The Green Bay women's basketball team is ready for its first in-game action ahead of the 2025-26 campaign, as the Phoenix opens the season with an exhibition contest versus the UW-Platteville Pioneers tomorrow at the Kress Center. Head Coach Kayla Karius enters her second season as the head coach of the Phoenix with an almost entirely overhauled roster.
 
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Green Bay Phoenix (0-0, 0-0 HL) at. UW-Platteville Pioneers (0-0, 0-0 WIAC)
Saturday, October 18, 2025 | Kress Center | Tickets
4:00 PM CST
Follow the action: Live Stats
 
ABOUT THE PIONEERS
The Pioneers finished 2024-25 with an 8-17 record overall, and a 2-12 record in the WIAC. Platteville will have its leading scorer from last year, Ella Mackiewicz, return to the lineup as a senior. Mackiewicz led the way with 13.9 points per game, while leading the team per game in rebounds (5.4), assists (1.96), steals (1.92), blocks (0.88), and minutes (26.2). Head Coach Kelly McNiff enters her seventh season at the helm of the Pioneers, posting an overall head coaching record of 57-79.
 
KARIUS ERA
After winning the Horizon League and making the NCAA Tournament in her first season as the Phoenix, Head Coach Kayla Karius will look to do the same in year two with an overhauled roster. Green Bay graduated seven seniors and 85.2% of its scoring from 2024-25. The 2025-26 Phoenix features eight newcomers, consisting of six transfers and two true freshmen. After two seasons as the head coach at South Dakota and her season with the Phoenix, Karius holds an all-time coaching record of 66-35.
 
A NEW ROLE
Entering her final season with Green Bay as their longest-tenured player, Jenna Guyer is coming off her best career season with the Phoenix and looks for an even bigger year in 2025-26. Guyer played 35 games off the bench for GB last season, averaging 7.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in just 15.5 minutes per game. Guyer's big breakout came in a Jan. 1 comeback win over Northern Kentucky, where she scored 22 points in 26 minutes on 8-of-10 shooting from the field, 2-of-2 on threes, and 4-of-4 on free throws, all career highs. Guyer helped lift the Phoenix over PFW with her stretch of eight points in five minutes to clinch GB's second straight Horizon League tournament championship.
 
A KEY ADDITION
Former Oakland standout and the lone Horizon League All-League player left in the league from a season ago, Maddy Skorupski, will wear the Green & White in her senior season. Skorupski was second in the Horizon League in scoring last season at 16.1 points per game, and led the conference with 2.8 steals per game, 0.7 more steals per game than any other player. Skorupski led the Grizzlies in scoring, assists (3.1 per game), steals per game, free throw percentage (75.9%), field goals made (180), and minutes per game (34.8). Skorupski had the single highest scoring performance of any Horizon League player last year with her 38-point explosion on Feb. 1, in a 77-63 win over Detroit Mercy, where the Clarkston, Michigan native shot 12-of-19 from the floor.
 
CARLEY'S COMEBACK
A disciple of Kayla Karius during their time together at South Dakota, the two-time CSC Academic All-District and former 1,000-point scorer of Green Bay Preble High School returns home to Green Bay as a senior. Carley Duffney was an efficient member of the Coyotes squad, her 10.9 points per game, 41.6 field goal percentage, 4.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 0.6 steals per game a season ago, all ranked second on South Dakota, trailing only Grace Larkins, who ranked third in scoring nationally. Scoring double figures 17 separate times last season, Duffney ranked 68th in D1 for free-throw percentage, at 83.9%. The Green Bay native's best came in the form of a 24-point day on 9-of-16 shooting in a 62-88 losing effort to Summit League rival Oral Roberts, scoring 40% of the team's points.
 
POINT PEPPLER
Previously an All-Freshman Team selection for the Horizon League in 2022-23, and the 2022 Wisconsin Miss Basketball award winner, Kamy Peppler spent the last three seasons with Milwaukee in the Horizon League. Last season, the Hortonville, Wis. native, led the Panthers in assists with 4.7 per game, only trailing Green Bay's Bailey Butler for the most in the Horizon League (4.9). Peppler led the Panthers in steals with 1.4 per game while also averaging 9.3 points per game, 23rd in the conference. Peppler's standout showing in her 2024-25 campaign was a near triple-double on Feb. 19th, where she scored 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting, a season-high eight rebounds, and eight assists.
 
WINNING WITH KARIUS
Head Coach Kayla Karius earned her 60th career win in her third season as an NCAA Division I head coach on February 15, 2025, with a 76-60 win against Detroit Mercy.
 
Fastest to 25 wins - Green Bay HC history *since becoming a Division I program
 
1. Matt Bollant - 29 games (2007-08)
2. Kayla Karius - 30 games (2024-25)
3. Carol Hammerle - 33 games (1987-88)
4. Kevin Borseth - 41 games (1998-99)
 
PHOENIX FAMILY
Two pairs of sisters will see their first action in Green Bay together this season. The duo of Kamy and Kallie Peppler each transferred from Milwaukee, and Julianna Ouimette, who spent last season as a redshirt, welcomes her younger sister Kristina to the Tundra.
 
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