Roosevelt has plenty of familiarity with the GLIAC even though they are the newcomers to the league. The Lakers faced both Northern Michigan and Lake Superior State last season, defeating the yellow-and-blue clad Lakers. In addition, new Purdue Northwest coach Jesse Ford arrived in Hammond after coaching at Indiana Northwest, which Roosevelt played three times just last season as conference rivals. Roosevelt also played a home-and-home with Hillside the past two seasons, preparing itself for the jump to Division II.
The nucleus of last year’s team is mostly returning for the Lakers, headlined by senior forward Jayla Turchin, a first-team all-conference performer last season. Turchin led the team with 13 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, showing off her versatility as a shooter, post player and ball handler. Point guard Jalyssa Carrasco is also back to run the show for the Lakers after setting the program record with 5.5 assists per game while finishing 19 helpers shy of the overall single-season record.
Sophomore Marie Outlay was an issue in her first season and she has only found more consistency and a stronger voice entering her second year. The Sun Prairie, Wis. native was the CCAC Freshman of the Year and the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year after being a lockdown defender in her debut season. Outlay set the program record with 87 steals and also finished second on the team with 19 blocks. She averaged 9.3 points per game on the other end of the floor, but was not needed to score as much last year.
Coach Deon Thomas focused mostly on youth in his newcomers with six freshmen joining a pair of Division I transfers to the program. Thomas recruited Evansville transfer Lexie Sinclair to help add another guard to the rotation then added Wofford forward Yinka Kruyswijk to bolster the team’s size in the post. The Lakers will also benefit from Division I transfer Luka Malinka being eligible to play after sitting out the second half of last season as a mid-year transfer. The guard from Denmark was an impressive practice player for Roosevelt last season, but will finally be able to show off her skills in games this year.
