This year’s basketball season began on October 28th for the men’s basketball team when they hosted Wabash here in Evansville, Indiana, at the Ford Center. The Aces, with a first win of 76-66, began the best season start since 1964, when they won the College Division National Title. There have been many highlights from the season to be caught up on, such as the Aces come-from-behind win against Chattanooga as they were able to erase a 20 point deficit and eventually take the win in overtime.
The Aces took their first loss once MVC play started to the Missouri State Bears with a final score of 78-90, but they bounced back quickly with a conference win against the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) with a final score of 91-89. Another huge highlight for the Aces men’s basketball team was playing in front of the fifth largest crowd in Ford Center history on January 6th, 2023, when the Aces hosted the Murray State Racers. The Aces were not able to bring home the win in front of the sellout crowd of approximately 7,928 fans, but were able to turn it around a short week later with a home win against Valpo.
Some people may wonder – what has flipped the switch for the Aces? The help from freshman Chuck Bailey III has been noticeable and made an impact for the Aces. He averages 9.9 points per game in his young career and has been named the MVC Freshman of the Week four times already with half the season left to go. Another impact player that has shown their contributions is transfer player Ben Humrichous with his high scoring games contributing to Aces’ wins. Humrichous averages 16.3 points per game with his highest scoring games so far, being against Missouri State and UNI where he had 18.3 points. Humrichous’ hardwork has also been spotlighted, as he has been named MVC Newcomer of the Week twice since the start of conference play. The Aces are looking to finish with a winning season and have a stellar showing at the MVC Conference Tournament.
The women’s Aces basketball team began their season on November 2nd, 2023, with a win against Oakland City here in Evansville. After that they have struggled to find the win column, losing to Lipscomb University, SIUE, Eastern Kentucky, and Michigan State. They eventually found a win at Chicago State in triple overtime with a score of 103-102. In that game, sophomore Kynidi Striverson led the team with 27 points, and four other Aces followed behind her with a couple players reaching double digit scoring on the night. Since Chicago State, the Aces have been in a funk and have not been able to find their way out yet. They are 0-5 in conference play with losses to respected teams such as UNI, that were ranked number one in the MVC preseason polls. But the Aces are hopeful to turn around conference play as time goes on in their season..
Early in the season, the Aces were recognized for their hard work and stellar numbers despite their losses. Freshman Maggie Hartwig has made her mark on the Aces basketball program early. She has gained recognition and has been named the MVC Freshman of the Week twice for this 2023-24 season. Hartwig averages 10.3 points a game with her highest scoring game, against SIUE with 12.5 points. She also averages 7.5 rebounds a game and has shown her versatility in both her inside and outside game that has been a help to the Aces. Graduate student Barbora Tomancova has also been recognized for her efforts as she has been named MVC Player of the Week once for this 2023-24 season. Tomancova averages 8.3 points a game and has seven blocks on the season. The Aces are working towards the end goal of making a run in the MVC tournament which will take place in Moline, Illinois from March 14th-17th. Here, they will fight for a chance to play in the NCAA women’s basketball March Madness.
The Aces Men’s Swim and Dive team began their season back in September but have continued to compete in the following months. They are 4-2 in head-to-head competitions beating schools such as USI and Valpo and took losses to Missouri State and UIC.
Sophomore Levi McKinney has been named to the MAC Swim and Dive athletes of the week as he was named the “Diver of the Week” back in October to open up the season and was just recently named “Diver of the Week” again in January. McKinney has had an exceptional season thus far as he has achieved his first-ever NCAA Zone qualifying score in his first meet of his sophomore season, posting a career-best score of 303.23 in the one-meter competition against Valparaiso and Southern Indiana. Shortly to follow, a few months later, McKinney posted his second NCAA Zone Qualifying score of the 2023-24 season when he won the one-meter competition against the University of Southern Indiana with a personal-best score of 308.85.
The Aces Women’s Swim and Dive team began their season as well back in September at the Alumni Meet and have continued to compete through the following months. They are 4-4 with wins against Valpo, Southern Indiana (twice) and Eastern Illinois. They have respected losses against Indiana State, UIC (twice), and Missouri State. The women’s swim and dive team is looking to compete in the MVC Swim and Dive Championships this month, then the CSCAA Championships in Florida, and lastly to follow the NCAA Championships.
Senior Maddie Rollett has had an impressive season as she also posted a personal-best one-meter score of 279.90 to record her first NCAA Zone Qualifying mark as a Purple Ace. She was able to surpass her personal-best score from two days before to record her first Zone Qualification. For this outstanding performance, Rollett was named “MVC Diver of the Week” back in the beginning of January – this would be her first “Diver of the Week” honor in her career as a Purple Ace. The entire women’s Aces team is looking forward to hosting the MVC Championships from February 21st-February 24th right here in Evansville, Indiana at Deaconess Aquatic Center.
The Aces Men’s Track and Field Team began their season in Nashville, Tennessee at the Commodore Challenge where they broke five program records. The records broken included: freshman, Rafeal Rodriguez broke the 1,000M record, freshman Jakub Nowicki broke the 600M record, freshman Raymond Felton III broke the 300M record, freshman Samuel Lea broke the 300M record, and lastly the Aces 4x400M team broke the record with a time of 3:27.67. The Aces came out of the gates booming and have continued to break program records throughout the season such as Raymond Felton III. breaking the 200M and GA, Zach Dove breaking the shot put record with a throw of 15.53M. The Aces are looking to continue their season strong and compete at the MVC Indoor Championships at the end of February.
Now, the Aces women’s Track and Field Team also began their season in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Commodore Challenge, getting off to a stellar start with six program records being broken. These records were: freshman, Nicole Prauchner broke the 1,000M record, freshman Eilén Brenne broke the 600M record, freshman Taylor Johnson broke the 300M record, Prauchner also broke the 800M record, Johnson also broke the 400M record, and lastly the 4x400M team broke the program record. The women’s Aces Team has gone on to continue breaking their own records time and time again, including sophomore Gwen Darrah breaking the program record for weight throw early on and has gone on to break her own record again at the beginning of this month. The Aces team has continued to work and shows their skills throughout the season and are hopeful for a good showing at the MVC Championships at the end of February as well.
The Aces Softball team began their season on February 9th, in North Carolina at the Elon University Tournament. The Aces were hopeful to have another impressive start as they did in their previous season being 13-1. But they ran into some tough competition Friday from Miami-Ohio University and Kent State University, taking two opening-day losses to them with a lot of questions on how the 2024 season would go. They had a quick turn around with two more games Saturday morning against Kent State and Elon University and had a much better performance but still fell short, losing to Kent State for the second time on a walk off and losing to Elon in extra innings. Red-shirt senior Zoe Frossard had an impressive opening weekend, leading the team in batting average with a .400. Senior Marah Wood was a close second to Frossard with a .385 batting average and racked up five hits on the weekend. The team is hopeful to turn around their season with their home opener tournament on February 16-17th where they will host Austin Peay and Miami-Ohio University.
“It would have been easy for any team to be discouraged by how the games went on Friday, but we reflected together afterwards and kept it real about what we needed to do differently in order to be the team we have the potential to be, and that really showed on Saturday. I am very excited for what lies ahead in the 2024 season as we take it one game at a time,” Senior red-shirt Zoe Frossard said
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