Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
St. Thomas Aquinas
November 01, 2026 | Women's Basketball
WEST POINT, N.Y. – Army West Point women's basketball opens the 2026-27 regular season and its 50th season of play on Monday, Nov. 2, when it hosts St. Thomas Aquinas at 6 p.m. at Christl Arena. The home opener doubles as Maggie Dixon Day, as the Black Knights honor the coach who changed the program and celebrate the 2025-26 team's historic WNIT run.
How to Follow
Watch: ESPN+
Listen: The Varsity Network
Live Stats: GoArmyWestPoint.com
Promotion: Maggie Dixon Day & Rally Towel Giveaway (while supplies last)
Maggie Dixon Day
Monday's opener honors the legacy of Maggie Dixon. In 2005-06, her only season as head coach, she led Army to its first Patriot League Tournament championship and the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance. Dixon died weeks later at age 28, and she is buried at the West Point Cemetery. Her impact is still felt in the program today.
That legacy came full circle last spring. Head coach Katie Kuester was named the 2026 Spalding® Maggie Dixon NCAA Division I Rookie Coach of the Year, the first Army coach to receive the award named for Dixon.
The celebration also kicks off the program's 50th season. Army women's basketball has been part of the Academy's athletic tradition for five decades, and the 2026-27 squad begins the milestone year coming off one of the best seasons in program history.
A Historic 2025-26
The Black Knights went 26-8 in Kuester's first season, the second-most wins in program history and the most ever by a first-year head coach at Army. They finished 14-4 in Patriot League play, good for a share of second place, and went 15-2 at Christl Arena.
Defense led the way. Army held opponents to 55.9 points per game, which ranked among the best marks in the nation. After reaching the Patriot League semifinals, the Black Knights made history in the WNIT. They beat NJIT and La Salle to become the first Patriot League team ever to reach the WNIT Great 8.
Army enters 2026-27 picked second in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. Camryn Tade and Kya Smith both landed on the Preseason All-Patriot League Team, making Army the only program with two selections.
Last Time Out
Army tuned up for the season with an exhibition at No. 2 UConn on Oct. 25. The Black Knights led the 2025-26 national semifinalists by as many as eight points in the first quarter before falling 86-50 in front of 10,244 fans at Gampel Pavilion. Reganne Reardon came off the bench to lead Army with 15 points, and Tade added 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
Black Knights to Watch
- Kya Smith (Sr., F): A team captain and Preseason All-Patriot League pick, Smith was named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award Preseason Watch List, the first Army player to earn the honor. She averaged 13.7 points and 10.2 rebounds per game last season, one of 23 players nationally to average a double-double. She was also one of three players in the country with multiple 20-point, 20-rebound games.
- Camryn Tade (Sr., G): The reigning First Team All-Patriot League and All-Defensive Team selection averaged 12.9 points per game in 2025-26. She shot 46.6 percent from the field, 36.9 percent from 3-point range and 86.0 percent from the free-throw line.
- Reganne Reardon (So., F): The Patriot League All-Rookie Team selection averaged 7.2 points off the bench last season and opened 2026-27 with a team-high 15 points at UConn.
Series History (new section; it goes right before Scouting St. Thomas Aquinas)
Monday marks the second all-time meeting between the programs. Army won the only previous matchup 70-45 on Dec. 20, 2014.
Scouting St. Thomas Aquinas
The Spartans compete in Division II's East Coast Conference under sixth-year head coach Bill Cleary. They went 8-20 overall and 5-11 in league play in 2025-26, averaging 56.1 points and 37.6 rebounds per game. St. Thomas Aquinas is a guard-heavy roster with a strong international presence, featuring players from Greece, Latvia, the Netherlands, Germany and Serbia.
Spartans to Watch
- Bailey Chapman (RJr., G): The Spartans' leading returner started all 28 games last season and led the team in scoring (12.2 ppg) and rebounding (7.5 rpg). She shot 36.6 percent from 3-point range.
- Jona Kabashi (So., F): Kabashi averaged 9.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game as a freshman, shooting 39.2 percent from the field.
- Toni Schuetze (So., G): The native of Rossdorf, Germany, averaged 8.8 points per game as a rookie and 11.9 points in conference play.
Up Next
Army hits the road for the first time in the regular season on Thursday, Nov. 5, at Brown. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. in Providence, R.I.
About Army West Point Women's Basketball
The Army West Point women's basketball program competes in the Patriot League and plays its home games at Christl Arena in West Point, N.Y. For more information, visit GoArmyWestPoint.com and follow @ArmyWestPointWBB on Instagram and @ArmyWP_WBB.
Media Contact
Contact Toni Bianco, Army West Point Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, for all media inquiries.
tonibianco518@gmail.com | (516) 941-6310
Army West Point Athletic Association, Inc. (AWPAA)
AWPAA is an IRS code 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation established to execute the United States Military Academy's intercollegiate athletics program. AWPAA is led by a board of directors that provides guidance to the director of athletics, who serves as the primary advisor to the USMA Superintendent and the USMA leadership on all NCAA operations. The AWPAA mission is to recruit, educate, train and inspire leaders of character who are committed to the Army values through an extraordinary Division I athletic experience.
