2025-26 Record: 23-8 overall, 17-5 GPAC (T-3rd); NAIA national qualifier
Head Coach: Drew Olson (507-163, 20 seasons; 17 national tournament appearances; 12 GPAC regular season/tournament titles; five national semifinal advancements, including two runners up; 2019 national champions).
Returning Starters: G Bree Bunting; F Raelyn Kelty; G Sammy Leu; G Ayla Roth.
Other Key Returners: G Joclyn Bassett; G Sara Harley; G Libby Hoffman; F JJ Jones; G Abbie Kromarek; F Makynna Robbins.
Key Newcomers: G Maci Pittenger; G Ava Reed.
Key Losses: F Kristin Vieselmeyer; G Gabrielle Wagner.
2025-26 GPAC All-Conference: Kristin Vieselmeyer (First Team); Ayla Roth (Second Team); Bree Bunting (Honorable Mention); JJ Jones (Honorable Mention); Raelyn Kelty (Honorable Mention); Sammy Leu (Honorable Mention).
Outlook
“Fast” is the word Head Coach Drew Olson uses to describe what he expects the 2026-27 Concordia University, Nebraska Women’s Basketball team to look like on the court. Akin to adjusting the game speed sliders on NBA 2K, the Bulldogs have pressed an extra fast forward button to the right. There are no training wheels for a backcourt teeming with experience and length. In other words, this group may be even more annoying to play than the 2025-26 team that forced an average of 26.2 turnovers per game.
That’s exactly how Olson likes it: persistently gnat-like in their on-court performance and willing to grow as people and in their Christian faith. The program’s eight senior varsity players understand the model. They take what they do seriously, but they also take advantage of opportunities for lighthearted moments.
“Their personalities are really fun,” Olson said. “I love it when teams feel comfortable enough to tease me about things, and this group has a great relationship with us (coaches). In terms of watching them play, man, they are fast. They are so fast, and it's fun to see that. I think it's a really entertaining style, and a lot of fans are going to enjoy it.”
Fans of Concordia Women’s Basketball already have an idea of what they’re going to see: relentless full-court pressure and an attacking offensive style with plenty of perimeter shooting. Unquestionably, the personnel is in place for Olson to unleash the Dawgs and accentuate the strength of the backcourt. Of the 16 players on the varsity roster, 12 are juniors or seniors. Ten returners averaged more than 8.0 minutes per outing on last season’s national tournament qualifier, which rose as high as No. 9 in the NAIA coaches’ poll.
The conversation begins with the senior class, which includes four 2025-26 Honorable Mention All-GPAC award winners in guards Bree Bunting and Sammy Leu and forwards JJ Jones and Raelyn Kelty. Through their careers, they contributed to a national tournament final site team as freshmen, endured a trying season of close calls as sophomores and then took on increased roles as juniors for last season’s national tournament squad.
Says the Kiowa, Colo., native Kelty, “We came in with 17 players, so it was a really big class, and there's still a lot of us. I think the bond we've been able to create is special. Even though there were so many of us, we got super close. JJ and Sammy are both going to be in my wedding next fall, so I think that's really special.”
Many of Olson’s best teams have been spearheaded by All-America caliber guards who cause havoc and pressure opponents into mistakes. Chief among the “gnats” are the 5-foot-9 Bunting and 5-foot-10 Leu. When paired together, Bunting and Leu serve as the first line of defense in the press. Both ranked among the GPAC leaders in steals per game while continuing to expand their offensive games. The Kersey, Colo., native Bunting (9.3 ppg) has ascended to another level this preseason.
Similarly, the best is certainly yet to come for sophomore point guard Ayla Roth, who enjoyed a decorated career at Milford High School. She averaged 11.0 points and sank 51 treys as a freshman in 2025-26. With Roth, Bunting and Leu expected to reprise their roles in the starting lineup, Olson will offer them plenty of freedom to put their playmaking skills to use.
“All three of them have really elevated their game,” Olson said. “I'm excited to see what they accomplish this year. I think they're really special. They're talented and bring more confidence and great leadership to the team. They're kind of the driving force behind what we do.”
With First Team All-GPAC standout Kristin Vieselmeyer having graduated, Concordia knows it will have to get by without a wealth of size in the post. The team’s leading returning rebounders include Kelty (5.1), junior Makynna Robbins (4.1) and Jones (3.3). Each of them will play a significant role, though Jones (7.7 ppg) is on the mend after enduring an offseason injury.
A Lutheran High School (Parker, Colo.) alum, Kelty can play inside and out. The Kiowa, Colo., native shot 41.6 percent from 3-point range and averaged 8.5 points last season. Her signature performance was a 23-point outing (7-for-9 from distance) in the GPAC tournament whitewashing of Briar Cliff. As for Robbins, she was the 2025 CIT MVP and remains on the rise.
Olson described Kelty as “an awesome leader and somebody we can really rely on.” He also remarked that Robbins’ “upside is incredible. She’s a great athlete, and it’s going to be really fun to see her explode.”
Plenty of others will contribute in a system that has always emphasized depth and line-change substitutions. Olson will spell the likes of Bunting, Leu and Roth in the backcourt with seniors Joclyn Bassett and Libby Hoffman, juniors Abbie Kromarek, Jenna Luebbe and Ona Stutzman and sophomore Sara Harley, among returning players. The senior class also features frontcourt players in Jordan Ernstmeyer and Mack Reimer. The likes of Bassett, Harley, Hoffman and Kromarek logged the most minutes last season out of the aforementioned group.
Among the eight freshmen in the program, in-state guards Maci Pittenger (Lincoln) and Ava Reed (Scottsbluff) have the best opportunity to impact the varsity roster this season. Pittenger claimed three all-state awards as a standout at Lincoln Christian High School while Reed garnered Class B First Team All-State accolades her senior year at Scottsbluff High School.
“With our style of play, we need to be able to play a lot of people,” Olson said. “It's a great blessing that we have players like that. They all bring something really special to the team, whether it's being great defensively or being a great shooter. I feel like they all provide something, and it's just a matter of getting them in at the right times. They provide great depth to our program and allow us to play the style we want to play.”
Concordia is hopeful that this will be another of the many special seasons that Olson (507 career wins) has presided over during the past two decades. The Bulldogs understand that the competition within their own conference will be stiff as usual. In the GPAC preseason coaches’ poll, Dakota Wesleyan and Dordt shared the top spot with six first-place votes apiece, while Concordia landed at No. 3, just ahead of Hastings. The league qualified six teams for the 2026 national tournament.
There are tangible markers the 2026-27 Bulldogs would like to achieve, but they are rallying around a central theme that is about more than basketball. As Kelty explains, “Our theme is ‘The Rock,’ which is about placing our identity in Christ and ultimately playing for the glory of God and not for ourselves but for each other. We want to make sure He's at the center of who we are as a team.”
She added, “We want to make it to the final site. That's the goal. But more than that, did we make great relationships? Did we center our team around Christ? Were we getting better? At the end, in March, are we the best we can be? If we get better every day and reach March feeling like we're at the peak of how we're going to play, I think that's a success.”
Indeed, there are measurements beyond wins and losses that will define this team. Olson further explained the team’s theme in stating, “It's more about the program in general. We wanted something that established who we are, so our theme is The Rock. Our foundation is Jesus, and regardless of what happens or what gets thrown at us throughout the season, that's our main focus. That's who we are and what we rely on. I think it's a fun theme and verse because we can use a lot of different things in different Bible scriptures that point to that rock.”
The Bulldogs are entering a stretch that will give them an early barometer for where they stand. On Oct. 21, Concordia will play at NCAA Division I University of Nebraska Omaha for an exhibition contest. In their home debut at the Cattle Classic (Nov. 6-7), the Bulldogs will host NAIA top 25 teams in Montana Tech and Dakota State University.
“You always want to challenge your team and put them in difficult positions,” Olson said. “You want to be challenged and tested to see what you need to get better at. For us, it's about finding out whether our style of play will work against other teams. We know we might be a little smaller this year, so how do we handle a bigger post player, perhaps someone UNO has, or players on some of the other teams we face early on? It's going to be great to see how we do against them and what adjustments we need to make.”
The complete 2026-27 schedule can be viewed HERE.