NC State
Tennessee
No. 9 Women’s Basketball Begins Season with Top 10 Matchup vs. No. 8 Tennessee
11/3/2025 1:23:00 PM | Women's Basketball
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GREENSBORO, N.C. – The No. 9/8 NC State women's basketball team will officially begin the 2025-26 season on Tuesday afternoon against No. 8/9 Tennessee for the Ro Greensboro Invitational by the Gazelle Group. The game will tipoff at 4 p.m. at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina and will be broadcast on ESPN2.
SCOUTING NC STATE
- NC State was picked to finish second in the ACC Preseason Poll and had two recipients on the All-ACC Preseason Team with Zoe Brooks and Khamil Pierre. Brooks is coming off a 2024-25 season having averaged 14.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Pierre averaged 20.4 points off 49.8 percent shooting, 9.6 rebounds and 2.9 steals per game at Vanderbilt
- The Pack is ranked in both preseason top 25 polls. NC State is No. 9 in the AP Preseason Poll and No. 8 in the WBCA Coaches Preseason Poll. The Pack won a share of the ACC Regular Season Championship with Notre Dame after finishing 16-2 in league play and returns seven and adds four this season
- The duo in Brooks and Pierre were ranked No. 18 and No. 22 respectively in ESPN's top 25 players and are on the Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy Player of the Year Watchlist
- Four different players made preseason top 20 watchlists from Naismith. Brooks is on the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Watchlist, Zamareya Jones made a spot on the Ann Meyers-Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year Watchlist, Pierre is on the Katrina McClain Watchlist and Tilda Trygger is on the Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Watchlist
- NC State has the second toughest non-conference schedule in relation to its opponents' final 2024-25 NET ranking in the ACC with that NET average being 91.5
- Last season, the Pack led the ACC in least fouls per game (12.1), which was the third best in the country. NC State also finished second in least turnovers per game (11.6), rebounds per game (41.3) and defensive rebounds per game (29.6), as well as third in scoring offense (76.9), assist/turnover ratio (1.18) and field goal percentage defense (38.5) in the ACC. Nationally, the Pack ranked eighth in defensive rebounds per game and least turnovers per game
- NC State has a 23-game home winning streak, which is the fourth active longest streak in the country. The Pack is coming off an 18-0 record at Reynolds Coliseum last season
- Brooks is the leading returning scorer, having logged 14.2 points per game and 3.7 assists per game. She was named to the 2025 All-ACC First Team and the program's first ACC Most Improved Player last season
- Trygger is the team's leading returning rebounder, having logged 4.9 boards per game and 22 total blocks last season. Trygger was tabbed to the ACC All-Freshman Team last season
- Head coach Wes Moore earned ACC Coach of the Year honors, the fourth time in his career. He has the second most wins among active NCAA Women's Basketball DI coaches with 859 across 36 years of collegiate coaching
- NC State welcomes four newcomers. As a part of a top 25 freshman class by ESPN, Ky'She Lunan and Adelaide Jernigan join the Pack as the No. 65 and No. 68 ranked players in their recruiting class. Qadence Samuels spent her first two seasons at UConn and was a part of the 2025 NCAA Championship team and Pierre joins the Pack from Vanderbilt
SCOUTING TENNESSEE
- Tennessee finished 24-10 and 8-8 in the SEC in Kim Caldwell's first season at the helm. The Lady Vols made the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 as a No. 5 seed and finished No. 15 in the AP Poll
- Tennessee is ranked No. 8 in the AP and No. 9 in the WBCA Preseason Rankings
- The Lady Vols bring six returning letterwinners and three returning starters, while also welcoming eight newcomers
- Tennessee was picked fourth by the media and fifth by the coaches in the SEC Preseason Poll. Talaysia Cooper was picked on the All-SEC Preseason First Team by the coaches and second team by the media
- Cooper led the team in scoring last season with 16.6 points per game with 5.8 rebounds per game along with 108 assists, 105 steals and 25 blocks
- Zee Spearman paced the squad in rebounding with 6.0 boards per game
LAST TIME OUT
- The Pack went 2-0 in exhibitions games
- The Pack played in a top 10 matchup in the preseason against No. 10 Maryland. Brooks led the Pack with 20 points, seven rebounds, three assists and five steals. Pierre logged 16 points and six rebounds in just 22 minutes, while Trygger registered 15 points and six boards
- In the Maryland game, Jones tallied 10 points, Devyn Quigley had 11 points off 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point off the bench and Samuels had a team's most 11 rebounds, including seven in the fourth quarter, with six points
- NC State defeated High Point, 77-69, in a game played early in the preseason. The Pack saw three players in double digits in that game, led by Trygger's double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds and Samuels' 14 points and eight boards
- Trygger averaged a team's most 15.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game across the two contests
SERIES HISTORY (NC STATE TRAILS 4-12)
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NC State and the Lady Vols will square off for the 17th time in the all-time series and second time in the last three years
NC State and Tennessee's last meeting resulted in a 79-72 win for the Pack at home to advance to the 2024 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 (and eventually the Final Four). Prior to that meeting, the teams had not played one another in 20 years (Nov. 21, 2004, in a 64-54 loss for the Pack at a neutral site)
The Pack is 1-4 in games played on a neutral site in this series
UPCOMING
NC State will stay on the road to play another neutral site game, this time against No. 18 USC at the Ally Tipoff played in the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. That game will tipoff at 3 p.m. on ESPN. Tickets for the game can be purchased HERE.
