A rebuilt Akron women’s basketball team opens its 2026-27 season at 6 p.m. Monday, November 2, against South Alabama at Rhodes Arena, carrying something the program has not had in a while: genuine optimism about the talent on its roster, according to the Akron Beacon Journal’s season preview.
The confidence starts at the top of the program’s support system. Bud Wentz, founder of the Fear the Roo Collective, told a crowd of Zips supporters at Akron’s tipoff reception at House Three Thirty on Friday, October 30, that this is the best assemblage of talent the program has had since 2013-14, telling the Beacon Journal’s audience, in the Beacon Journal’s reporting, that the team has depth, size and a different attitude.
That comparison sets a high bar. The Beacon Journal noted that the 2013-14 Zips, led by program legend Rachel Tecca-Fleming, won the Mid-American Conference Tournament title and earned the program’s only trip to the NCAA Tournament — still the standard every Akron team since has been measured against.
The case for optimism has to reckon with last season. Akron went 7-24 overall and 4-14 in the MAC last year, and the Zips finished 11th among 12 teams in the 2026-27 MAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Coaches Poll, according to the Beacon Journal. On paper, the league’s coaches are not expecting a leap.
The roster, however, barely resembles last season’s. Of the 15 players on this year’s team, only six returned from last season, while seven transferred to Akron in the offseason and two are freshmen, the Beacon Journal reported — a near-total overhaul typical of the transfer portal era, but one the coaching staff believes was built deliberately rather than desperately.
Akron coach Ryan Gensler told the Akron Beacon Journal that the group has blended well so far, and that the staff went after players who fit the size and versatility the team needed, along with a toughness and a winning mentality. Gensler is entering his fourth season leading the Zips, and qualifying for the MAC Tournament for the first time in his tenure is the program’s stated goal, according to the Beacon Journal.
The backcourt is built around a returning star. Guard Shaena Brew is back after earning a spot on the All-MAC Freshman Team last season, when she averaged 11.2 points on 45.2 percent shooting, with 3.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 27.9 minutes a game, according to the Beacon Journal. Wentz told the Beacon Journal that Brew will be the heart of the team.
Around Brew, the Beacon Journal identified guard-forward Monique Mitchell, another returnee, forward Macey Fegan, a transfer from Cleveland State, and guard Tyla Heard, a transfer from Oklahoma State, among Akron’s other top players. Guards Kailee Bransford, Kam’Ren Rhodes and Teniesha Clarke are also back and expected to contribute after injuries interfered last season.
Inside, the Beacon Journal reported that Gensler described Jessie Joaquim, a 6-foot-2 transfer from New Mexico, as the exact center the staff wanted to have — the kind of size the Zips lacked during last season’s struggles in the paint and on the defensive glass.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the roster is deeper and bigger, the opener is Monday night at home against South Alabama, and the coaching staff’s goal is a MAC Tournament berth. What we are still waiting on: how quickly nine new players blend against real competition, whether the defense and defensive rebounding Gensler emphasized to the Beacon Journal show up from the first week, and whether a team picked 11th in the preseason poll can climb into the conference’s top eight by March.
Gensler told the Beacon Journal the Zips have a chip on their shoulder about what they want to accomplish, but that they have to be a really good defensive team, a really good defensive rebounding team and a smart offensive team to get there. Northeast Ohio basketball fans can follow another local storyline the same night in the Cavaliers’ home game against Oklahoma City, and Akron readers can also catch up on a new leader taking over at Akron’s United Disability Services.
What happens next is immediate: tipoff against South Alabama at 6 p.m. Monday at Rhodes Arena opens a nonconference schedule the Zips will use to sort out a nine-newcomer rotation before MAC play begins. A strong November would not erase an 11th-place preseason pick, but it would be the first evidence that this rebuild is ahead of schedule.
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