Women's Basketball | 3/29/2024 10:00:00 AM
The Empire 8 Conference is celebrating the league’s 25th Anniversary season in 2023-24, honoring student-athletes, teams, coaches and administrators who have played a key role in the league’s success over the last 25 years. Empire 8 Women’s Basketball is no exception, as several individuals and teams have excelled at the conference, national and regional levels.
Ithaca College and St. John Fisher University shared the inaugural Empire 8 Women’s Basketball Championship in 1999-00, finishing tied for the top record in the regular season. The Bombers won five of the first six and six of the first eight league titles, including the first to be determined by a postseason tournament in 2003-04. Overall, the Bombers claimed 10 Empire 8 titles from 1999-2017. St. John Fisher is right behind Ithaca having won Empire 8 Championships, including the last three consecutive league titles and four in the last five seasons. Stevens claimed four Empire 8 Championships as a member of the league from 2007-19, while Utica University won two in a three-year span in 2007-08 and 2009-10. Hartwick won its first Empire 8 Championship in 2018-19, while Nazareth University claimed its first league title in 2020-21.
Stevens standout Kaitlyn Astel is the Empire 8’s lone three-time Player of the Year, earning the honor in 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17, while Utica’s Jessica Berry was the Empire 8 Player of the Year in 2009-10 and 2010-11 and earned E8 Rookie of the Year honors in 2007-08. Berry is also the lone four-time All-Empire 8 first team selection, two-time All-American and holds the league record with 2,111 career points. Nazareth’s Jadyn Abrams (2020-21, 2021-22), Dani Dudek of Stevens (2007-08, 2008-09) and Hartwick’s Tiffany Hurley (2000-01, 2001-02) were also two-time Empire 8 Players of the Year.
Ithaca head coach Dan Raymond holds the E8 record with 355 coaching wins in addition to nine Empire 8 titles and eight Coach of the Year awards. Former St. John Fisher head coach Phil Kahler won 182 games with a .752 winning percentage in the first nine seasons of the league with three E8 Championships. Current St. John Fisher head coach Melissa Kuberka holds the league record with an .807 winning percentage (146-35 record) with four E8 titles and three Coach of the Year honors in just seven seasons. Current Utica head coach Michele Davis is the longest serving head coach in the league, having arrived in 2000. She has 289 wins and two Empire 8 Championships.
In 2000-01, Ithaca parlayed an Empire 8 title into a trip to the NCAA Round of 16. In 2013-14, Ithaca made the Empire 8’s deepest run in the tournament, advancing to the Sectional Final (Round of 8). Ithaca also made the NCAA Round of 16 in 2012-13, while Stevens did the same in 2015-16. In 2024-15, the Empire 8 made history, as a league record three teams (St. John Fisher, Ithaca, and Stevens) qualified for the NCAA Tournament
Below we are honoring members of the Empire 8 Women’s Basketball 25th Anniversary Team. Recipients were chosen by the league office and were named either a Player of the Year, All-American, earned All-Empire 8 first team honors at least three times in their collegiate careers, scored 1,800 career points or won a major Empire 8 Scholar-Athlete award.
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Empire 8 Women’s Basketball 25th Anniversary Team
Jadyn Abrams, G, Nazareth
Kaitlyn Astel, G, Stevens
Jessica Berry, F/C, Utica
Katherine Bixby, G, Ithaca
Kerri Brown, G, Ithaca
Megan Brown, F, Stevens
Rachel Benedict, F, Nazareth
Kayla Camacho, G, Houghton
Stephanie Cleary, G, Ithaca
Nicolette Conkin, G, Utica
Mary Kate Cusack, G, St. John Fisher
Dani Dudek, G, Stevens
Jenn Escobido, F, Ithaca
Syrita Faraj, G, Russell Sage
Maria Foglia, G, Hartwick
Meghan Fiore, G, Utica
Melissa Hartman, F/C, St. John Fisher
Tiffany Hurley, F, Hartwick
Missy Lock, F, St. John Fisher
Lindsey Kelly, F/C, Nazareth
Lyndsay Murphy, G, Alfred
Jennifer Parker, G, Elmira
Samantha Peebles, G, Nazareth
Sydney Przygoda, F, Utica
Sara Shipley, F/C, Nazareth
Mary Kate Tierney, G, Ithaca
Sidney Tomasso, G, St. John Fisher
Ava Thomas, F, Utica
Portia Velasco, G, St. John Fisher
Kaitlyn Walker, F, St. John Fisher
Amanda Waloven, G, St. John Fisher
Jessica Zoltowski, G, Elmira
Founded in 1999, the Empire 8 has developed into one of the premier NCAA Division III athletic conferences, both on the field and in the classroom. The conference has created and implemented innovative and groundbreaking sportsmanship programming over this time, many of our which have received great publicity, including features in USA Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The NCAA News, and various athletic profession publications. The Empire 8 has also been highly influential in helping to shape the Division III landscape, passing many legislative proposals along with individuals who hold leadership roles at the national level.
Feature stories and series’ celebrating the league’s 25th anniversary will be highlighted on the conference's website and social media platforms throughout the 2023-24 season. The conference will also be using the #E825 and #E8Anniversary hashtags on its Twitter and Instagram platforms as a way for fans to follow along throughout the year.
ABOUT THE EMPIRE 8 CONFERENCE
The members of the Empire 8 Conference are committed first and foremost to the pursuit of academic excellence and the league is regarded as an outstanding NCAA Division III conference. The membership has distinguished itself among its peer group for its quality institutions, spirited and sportsmanlike competition, outstanding services and highly ethical policies and practices. Its commitment to serve the educational needs of its student-athletes is the hallmark of the E8. For more on the Empire 8 visit
www.empire8.com.
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