Coach Brenda Frese stood at the media day podium in October with more questions than answers. Maryland women’s basketball reeled off a 19-14 season and underwent a major roster overhaul after suffering its first first-round NCAA tournament exit since 2001.
The veteran coach’s goal before the season was to attack deficiencies that had plagued the Terps a year before, hopeful her 10 new players could develop chemistry while sustaining her program’s culture in the 2024-25 season.
It worked astonishingly fast. Five months later, Maryland earned its 17th-ever Sweet Sixteen appearance before falling to South Carolina. Despite the successes, untimely injuries and the lack of a true interior presence limited the team’s true ceiling.
“A lot of teams would have folded,” Frese said after the loss. “I know we’re disappointed because we felt like through the journey … we had a chance to be able to move on, but we hold our head high.”
Maryland opened the season 14-0 — its best start since 2011-12 — highlighted by a 107-35 win against Saint Francis. 10 Terps scored in that Nov. 24 game, including transfer Kaylene Smikle, who led the team with 17.9 points a game.
The Terps’ dominant start also featured signature wins over then-No. 11 Duke and then-No. 23 Iowa, but momentum faded soon after.
Maryland broke its undefeated streak with a 74-79 home loss to then-No. 4 USC on Jan. 8. Six days later, Bri McDaniel suffered a season-ending ACL tear against Minnesota.
Injury troubles plagued Maryland throughout its worst stretch of the season. Only one Terp accounted for double digit points in a 38-point blowout loss to top-ranked Texas on Jan. 20, where guard Shyanne Sellers suffered a knee injury.
[Golden State Valkyries select Shyanne Sellers with No. 17 pick in WNBA draft]
Two more ranked losses, and the Terps dropped to No. 21 in late February.
“Time is winding down,” Sellers said. “We’ve got to make a choice.”
The Terps suffered two Quadrant 2 home losses to Illinois and Nebraska to open February. The latter of which, a 20-point Cornhuskers win, marked the first time Maryland has dropped three straight games at Xfinity Center since 2010.
“They were the more aggressive team,” Frese said. “They exposed us.”
The loss reflected a season-long issue for Maryland — a lack of a true center and defensive struggles against elite frontcourts. Nebraska’s Alexis Markowski scored nearly half of the Cornhuskers’ paint points in early February, Texas’ frontcourt trio outscored the Terps roster on Jan. 20 and UCLA’s Lauren Betts torched the team with a career-high 33 points in a Jan. 26 rout.
Searching for answers, Maryland found a spark in its smallest player — 5-foot-5 graduate student guard Sarah Te-Biasu.
With McDaniel out, Sellers sidelined and Saylor Poffenbarger nursing a leg injury, the VCU transfer stepped up. Te-Biasu dropped 20 points against Penn State to snap a three-game skid and secure the Terps’ first win in nearly two weeks.
“Be ready when your number’s called,” Frese said. “I think these guys are really starting to figure that out and understand it, and they’re watching it play out.”
[Maryland women’s basketball portal tracker: Following the Terps’ offseason roster changes]
Nearly two months later, Te-Biasu sealed Maryland’s regular season finale with a game-winning floater in overtime to upset then-No. 12 Ohio State.
Despite a Big Ten quarterfinal loss to Michigan, the Terps earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament where they beat Norfolk State and outlasted then-No. 5 Alabama in a double overtime thriller with 26 points from Te-Biasu and a team-high 28 points from Sellers.
Maryland’s first overtime win since 2013 secured its first Sweet Sixteen in two years, but the run ended with a four point loss to South Carolina. Without McDaniel, Maryland struggled to match South Carolina’s depth.
But despite the loss and the overall roadblocks, Frese expressed support for her team after a generally successful season that brought the Terps back to prominence.
“[I] just appreciate this group,” Frese said. “Every single one of them [chose] to buy in and believe in this coaching staff and this system.”
Heading into the 2025-26 season, Maryland lost Sellers — a three-time All-Big Ten first team member — to the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries, along with Christina Dalce, Amari DeBerry, Te-Biasu. Sophomore guard and forward Emily Fisher and graduate student forward Allie Kubek also entered the transfer portal.
Still, Frese reloaded through the portal. The additions of Duke’s Oluchi Okananwa, Indiana’s Yarden Garzon, Penn State’s Gracie Merkle and a strong freshman class could position the Terps as Big Ten contenders next season.
