Women's Basketball | 10/22/2026 5:00:00 PM
The 2025-26 season was one marked by huge progress for the York University Lions women's basketball team.
A 9-4 start to the season was curtailed slightly by a 2-7 finish, but that still netted the Lions an 11-11 record – their best since 2021-22 – and their first playoff win since 2019, a solid 66-55 victory on the road at Laurentian.
Looking forward to the new season, which starts Friday at Tait McKenzie Centre against the Toronto Varsity Blues, head coach Christa Eniojukan is hopeful the positive experiences gained last season will rub off on those returning athletes.
"I think it gave the players coming back a lot of confidence," said Eniojukan, who enters her sixth season as head coach. "They understand that we are capable, so we have a lot more confidence than we have in previous years going into this season."
The Lions two biggest wins last season came against two of the top teams in the province. First, they knocked off the eventual OUA champion TMU Bold on Jan. 10 to snap their 11-game winning streak and hand them one of just two losses they would have all season. Then, on senior night, the Lions took down another top dog in the OUA in the Guelph Gryphons.
"They're huge," Eniojukan said of those victories, which each went a long way toward securing the Lions playoff berth. "It's one thing to beat the teams at the bottom or in the middle, but when you're talking about ranked teams, we know that if we take care of what we're supposed to, we can be in any game."
While the Lions lose one of the best players to ever don a York uniform in Kiara Leveirdge, Eniojukan believes the Lions window to compete is still wide open.
"At the very least, we expect to be where we were, if not better than last year," she said.
The Lions combatted the loss of Leveridge with a strong recruiting class featuring a strong mix of transfers and high school athletes. The biggest of the Lions additions is Chantelle Stuart, a Scarborough, Ont., native who returns home and comes to York from the Furman Paladins, an NCAA Division I school located in Greenville, S.C.
"I want to say she's the biggest transfer to come back from the NCAA," Eniojukan said of Stuart, who spent two seasons at Furman and played in all 32 games in 2024-25. "Her basketball IQ and ability to control and impact a game is very high, so everybody's going to be gunning for her.
"She knows that, and she's going to have to prepare mentally to carry that load, but there's very few people who can have full control of the game like she can, and even when she's not scoring, her passing is elite, but she has the ability to score at all levels as well."
The Lions also landed veteran Eden Monka, who spent three seasons in the Division II ranks, most recently at American International College in Springfield, Mass.
"She's a very good, versatile guard/forward for us, and a great defender." Eniojukan said of Monka, who hails from London, Ont. "She's a vet, so that experience is really going to help with our maturity as a team."
York also brought in a pair of high school recruits this offseason in Karis Oppong, a Brampton native out of St. Jude's Academy in Mississauga, and Cassidy Nugent, the pride of North Vancouver, B.C.
"Our young players are learning and getting better every day," Eniojukan said of her rookies. "We saw good growth from them in the preseason, so we're looking forward to what they can do."
With the additions of Stuart and Monka, as well as some holdovers from last season and beyond such as Naimh Heath, Gabby Di Pietro, Katie Leudy and others, the Lions have one of the most veteran-laden teams the program has seen in recent years. Eniojukan believes this puts the program in a position to succeed not only now, but down the line.
"It helps build our culture and our identity," she said. "We've been harping to our team that a player-led team is going to be a winning team, so we've been helping the veterans understand the importance of their voice.
"We as coaches are going to be on them all the time, but it's much more impactful when it comes from a teammate."
Over Eniojukan's tenure as Lions bench boss, that identity the Lions have prided themselves on comes from their defensive play. This group is no different, and should be one of the most aggressive teams in the OUA.
"We know we're at our best when we're getting stops and scoring in transition," Eniojukan said of her team, which finished third in the OUA in turnovers forced per game (22.2) and fifth in steals per game (12.3) last season. "That's the style of play that we like, and we can have a really good impact on the game defensively."
Offensively, the Lions will look to improve on their three-point shooting, which was in the bottom third of the OUA last season, and they'll look to do that with a deeper all-around roster.
"We have the ability to shoot it at all positions, but it's just about being consistent," Eniojukan said. "It's really about our versatility and our depth, and we'll be playing our best basketball when three or four people are scoring in double figures, which I think can happen."
The length of the Lions rotation is something Eniojukan believes will be key in the Lions sustaining success this season. While the likes of Stuart, Monka, Di Pietro and others will play pivotal roles, the Lions know they can rely on several others to fill voids where necessary during a long OUA campaign.
"It helps in the sense that when we do have people out, if the rest of the team is healthy and ready to make an impact, it's going to help in the long run," Eniojukan said.
That campaign begins Friday night at home against the Toronto Varsity Blues, a game the team is relishing.
"It's always great to play a rival in the first game," Eniojukan said. "We're pumped to be able to play them on opening night, and we've always had really great battles with them, so really looking forward to that."
Tip-off Friday night is set for 6:00 p.m., before the Lions take on the Nipissing Lakers on Saturday night, also at 6:00 p.m. You can get your tickets at yorkulions.ca/tickets or watch the games live on OUA TV.
