KANSAS CITY, Mo. – For the second straight in-season NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll, the Loyola Wolf Pack women's basketball team finds itself in the receiving votes category and just outside the Top 25 rankings. Loyola gathered 39 total votes, 27 fewer than the last Top 25 three weeks ago, and it needs 116 to crack back into the Poll.
The SSAC doesn't have a representative in the Top 25, but William Carey joins the Pack in the receiving votes category with 95 votes.
Loyola is 3-0 since the last rankings were released, improving its overall record to 8-2 and its SSAC record to 2-1. The Pack earned road league wins at Blue Mountain Christian and Tennessee Southern before a home non-conference win over Arkansas Baptist finished off the team's 2025 slate. Loyola will return to action at home on Friday, Jan. 2, with a 12 p.m. non-conference matchup with Warner (Fla.) before resuming conference play at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 8, at home against Mobile.
Deniya Thornton continues to pace the team in several categories, including points per game (16.9), three-pointers (10), steals (27), and blocks (7). Thornton is one of four Wolf Pack players to average at least 10 points per game, joining Alissa O'Dell (15.3), Caitlin Travis (12.8), and SeQuoia Carroll (10.4). O'Dell leads the squad with 9.5 rebounds per game, with Carroll (6.9), Thornton (5.9), and freshman Tiarra McPipe (5.8) also contributing on the boards. Chandler Caver continues to lead the team in assists with 3.4 assists per game.
Both Thornton and O'Dell earned SSAC weekly honors over the last couple of weeks, too. Thornton picked up her third career SSAC Defensive Player of the Week on Dec. 1, and O'Dell was named Offensive Player of the Week on Dec. 8.
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