The Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball team is getting ready for the 2021 season.
The first game of the season will be an exhibition match against Georgia Southwestern on Oct. 31. Another exhibition match on Nov. 5 against Mississippi College will follow before regular season play begins on Nov. 9 against Texas A & M – Kingsville.
This season will be spearheaded by standouts Brandi Williams and Ty’Reona Doucet. Williams started in all but one game last season and became the 20th Cajun to score 1,000 points in program history. She led the team in scoring, averaging 12 points per game and earned Second Team All-Sun Belt Conference and Sun Belt All-Tournament Team honors.
Doucet became the first Ragin’ Cajun in program history to earn Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year. She also earned First Team All-Sun Belt Conference honors along with leading the team in rebounds and blocks. These two will continue to bring leadership and experience to the team this year.
Last season the team was just shy of beating the UT Martin Skyhawks at the 2021 Women’s National Invitation Tournament. This was their first-ever appearance at the WNIT. The team also had their first-ever Sun Belt Conference Regular Season Championship and accomplished a record-breaking 15-game winning streak. In addition, Louisiana ranked 36th in scoring defense nationally.
This amazing season led to the Louisiana Sports Writers Association naming Head Coach Garry Brodhead as Coach of the Year and Doucet First-Team All-Louisiana. Williams was named Third Team All-Louisiana and Skyler Goodwin was named Honorable Mention.
Under Brodhead’s leadership, Mary Chris Vogt was promoted to assistant coach. As assistant coach this season, she will conduct skill work with guards and forwards, as well as continue to assist with team logistics. She was previously the director of basketball operations.
Brodhead spoke on Vogt’s promotion. “We are extremely fortunate that Mary Chris has been in our program since 2015 and we know that she is ready to take on this new challenge as an assistant coach,” Brodhead said. “M.C. has worked so hard to get to this position and I know that she will help us continue to take our program to new heights.”
Vogt is excited and thankful that Brodhead gave her the opportunity to grow in this new position. “For five seasons I have been fortunate to watch the program reach different milestones. As an assistant coach, I am looking forward to continuing to watch this program reach new heights, while embracing a new way to make an impact,” Vogt shared on ragincajuns.com.
In addition to promoting Vogt, Brodhead added two new players for this season. Old Dominion transfer Lanay Wheaton and Alabama transfer Destiny Rice are two guards that will join the Cajun squad this year.
Brodhead commented on these additions: “We are extremely excited to welcome Lanay and Destiny to our program,” Brodhead said. “Both add quality depth at the guard position and know what it takes to win. I am looking forward to seeing the impact they both will have on our team this year.”
With Vogt in an assistant coaching position, knowledge from Doucet and Williams and the new additions of Wheaton and Rice, Louisiana is destined to have another phenomenal season this year.