Coach Erin Batth at Big East Media Day

by Izzy Mignardi ’27 on November 13, 2025

Sports

“I’m trying to get my women to believe.”

“I’m trying to get my women to believe,” women’s basketball head coach Erin Batth shared with reporters at the Big East Media Day at the end of October. After being ranked No. 10 in the Big East coaches poll, Batth reaffirmed her confidence in the women on her team and in herself as a coach.

The team has revamped their roster after 10 of last year’s players graduated. The Friars’ only returning players are Sophi Hall ’27, Orlagh Gormley ’28, and Audrey Shields ’27. With 12 new players, Batth shared how getting the team to mesh well is essential for a successful season. It sounds old school, she explained, but she focuses on spending time with each of them individually and inviting the players to spend time together off the court, even welcoming them into her own home. This level of comfort with one another will translate nicely onto the court for both practices and games.

Despite losing their home opener to Howard University 68–56, Batth reported that she doesn’t want the team to view themselves as underdogs anymore. Labeling themselves as underdogs means they accept their place, which isn’t the attitude that she wants the players to have. She did say that she would rather be ranked No.10 than No. 3 though, because the team is “out here to surprise people.” She continued, “The beauty of the Big East is that you never know what you’re going to get.”

So how exactly does Batth plan to achieve success with this almost entirely new team? Aside from working on getting them to know each other and maintaining their energy, she explained that a team can mirror their head coach and she wants this team to mirror her aggression. The pace of their offensive game will be faster—speed is something she believes is crucial for a winning season. Additionally, becoming better shooters and overall more athletic players is how she sees the team refuting the pre-season coaches low poll rank. Ultimately, her tactic to forget about last year’s record and the coaches poll is something she calls prioritizing their “next play.” Don’t focus on what happened, but what you’re going to do next. She advises the team to apply this to basketball, of course, but to take this with them off the court too.

“Good and bad we’re going to do this together,” Batth said. Watch for this team dynamic on Saturday, Nov. 15 when the Friars play Boston College in Alumni Hall.

Athlete of the Week: Sabou Gueye

by Dorothée Durivage ’28 on November 13, 2025

Sports

In her first in-season game as a Friar, Sabou Gueye ’26G put up a great fight against the Howard University Bisons despite the women’s basketball team’s loss. On Tuesday, Nov. 4, the guard from Dakar, Senegal led the Friars with 16 points and managed a game-high four steals. Gueye is a graduate student who transferred to Providence College this year from Florida A&M University, where she played one season as a Rattler. While she was there, Gueye appeared in 27 games with 26 starts and averaged 11.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.0 steals per game while shooting 46 percent from the field. Gueye’s performance on Tuesday shows a continuation of the skills she displayed at Florida A&M where she recorded 18 double-digit scoring games, eight of which she scored15 or more points.

Prior to her season as a Rattler, she played the 2022–2024 seasons at New Mexico State University. With the Aggies, Gueye appeared in a total of 57 games and was part of the starting lineup for eight of those games. From 2020–2022, Gueye was part of the 2021 NJCAA National Championship team at Northwest Florida State College. At the beginning of her college career, she helped Northwest Florida to a 51–5 record and played in 21 games, averaging 2.1 points and 1.1 rebounds in 6.1 minutes per game.

Prior to her college career, Gueye attended Putnam Science Academy and competed in Basketball Without Borders Africa in 2017 and 2018, where she became a two-time Basketball Without Borders All-Star. Gueye has also played outside of college since the beginning of her NCAA journey; in 2024, she competed with the Senegal Senior National Team at the 2024 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Rwanda.

The women’s basketball team has only played three games so far this season: the exhibition game against Franklin Pierce University, the season opener against Howard, and their most recent game against Central Connecticut State University. Gueye did not play in the first game, but her performance against Franklin Pierce shows that she could become a crucial player for the Friars’ women’s basketball team. The growth she has shown over the course of her college career so far indicates that she is able to do great things on the court and could be a key player for the success of the Friars this season. Seeing as she has been getting better every year, Gueye still has room to better her game and be an even more impactful player than she already is. It will be exciting to watch her play as the Friars have four home games in Alumni Hall in the next two weeks against Boston College, Northeastern University, and Yale University.