VALDOSTA, Ga. – The defending Gulf South Conference East Division champion Valdosta State Lady Blazer basketball team opens the 2021-22 season Friday and Saturday with a pair of key regional games at The Complex.  The No. 15-ranked Lady Blazers open the season with Palm Beach Atlantic on Friday at 6 p.m., while VSU is set to battle Benedict College on Saturday at 4 p.m.  
 
Fans can access links to live stats and audio/video streaming of the games at vstateblazers.com on the women's basketball schedule page.  Spencer Van Horn will have the call of the season-opener Friday evening on the webstream.  Click on the links to the right of the story for access to watch the games and for live stats.
 
The Lady Blazers finished the 2020-21 season with an 18-4 record overall and a 16-2 mark in the GSC finishing 13^th nationally in the final Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Top 25.  The Lady Blazers defeated GSC rival Lee in the first round of the NCAA Division II South Regional, 74-64, before losing a heartbreaker to regional champion Lander, 63-60 in the second round.
 
Palm Beach Atlantic enters the 2021-22 season after going 4-7 in the COVID-19 a year ago.  The Sailfish are under the direction of fourth-year head coach Manisha Redus who is 14-50 at PBA.  The Sailfish were picked seventh in the Sunshine State Conference preseason poll this season.  And return two players who earned All-SSC honors last season in Shekinah Guthrie and Maria Benitez-Zayas.  Guthrie is the reigning SSC Defensive Player of the Year and was named to the All-Newcomer Team, while Benitez-Zayas all earned All-Newcomer honors and earned SSC second team accolades.  In addition, two veteran players also return in Sia Williams and Avree Carpenter, who were the second and fourth leading scorers on the team, respectively, last season.  In all, the top eight scorers return from a year ago.  
 
VSU and PBA last met on Nov. 19, 2018, in Palm Beach, Fla., with the Sailfish winning 57-51.  VSU leads the all-time series 4-2 dating back to Dec. 10, 2007.  The Blazers won the first four meetings in the series, but PBA has won the last two.  VSU is 2-1 in West Palm Beach, with the last win there coming on Dec. 31, 2011.  
 
Benedict was picked to win the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) East Division and is among others receiving votes in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Preseason Top 25.  Ay'Anna Bey, a two-time SIAC Player of the Year, was named the 2021-22 SIAC Preseason Player of the Year, while Keondra Archie joins Bey on the preseason all-first team.  Wykira Johnson-Kelly and Ayanna Armstead were named to the preseason SIAC second team. 
 
Bey won the 2018-19 and 2019-20 SIAC Player of the Year accolades, while she earned D2CCA All-South Region in 2020, averaged 17.5 points per game (3rd in SIAC) and 9.5 rebounds per game (1st in SIAC) in 2020. She also shot .484 from floor which ranked fourth in the league. During the 2020-21 COVID season, the New Jersey native averaged 18.2 points per game and 8.6 rebounds per game. In her sophomore season, she was named WBCA Honorable Mention All-American averaging 23.7 points per game and 12.5 rebounds per game.
 
Archie averaged 9.9 points and 6.6 rebounds for Benedict in last season's COVID-shortened season. In 2019-20, Archie averaged 14.8 points, seventh-best in the SIAC, while playing for Paine College.  Johnson-Kelly ranked 10^th in the SIAC in scoring during the 2019-20 season, averaging 13.8 points per game and was named to the 2020 SIAC Tournament All-Tournament team. She also ranked fourth in the SIAC in 3-point field goal percentage (.373). Last season, she averaged 14.2 points and shot 32 percent from 3-point range.

Armstead was named SIAC First Team All-Conference following 2018-19 season. She averaged 9.6 points and shot .321 from 3-point range (44-137) during 2019-20 season. She also averaged 9.7 points and shot .311 from 3-point range (23-74) from 3-point range during the COVID 2020-21 season.
 
Benedict went 12-3 last season and battled top-ranked South Carolina to a 98-41 game on Nov. 1.  In the game against USC, Benedict had a 17-14 lead through the first quarter against the Lady Gamecocks.  Johnson-Kelly had 12 points in the game, while Armstead added ten points.  Benedict will face West Florida on Friday at The Complex, before battling VSU on Saturday. Tiger head coach James Rice is 180-71 in his tenth season at BC.  
 
The Tigers lead the all-time series with VSU 1-0, with a 71-60 victory in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Mar. 10, 2017, in the first round of the NCAA South Regional.  Poor shooting both from the field and the charity stripe doomed VSU in the game as it shot 28 percent for the game and just 58 percent from the line on 17 of 29, while Benedict shot just south of 50 percent.  VSU held a 45-36 lead in rebounding.
 
Blazer head coach Deandra Schirmer begins her third season at the helm of the Lady Blazers and is 36-15 overall and 26-12 in GSC play.  Schirmer was named GSC East Division Coach of the Year last season and coached GSC East Division Player of the Year in graduate Kwajelin Farrar.  Farrar became the first VSU first team WBCA All-America selection since 1995.  Schirmer became the fifth different VSU head women's coach to earn GSC Coach of the Year honors and first since former head coach Carley Kuhns earned the honor in 2016-17.  
 
VSU was picked third in the Preseason GSC Poll, while Farrar was named to the Preseason All-GSC Team this season.  Lee was picked second in the poll with one first-place vote and 126 points, while Montevallo was just behind the Lady Blazers with 116 points and Delta State rounded out the top five with 91 points.  Alabama Huntsville was picked sixth in the poll with 88 points, followed by West Alabama (83), West Florida (66), West Georgia (61) and Christian Brothers rounded out the top ten with 46 points.  Mississippi College was picked 11^th with 33 points, followed by Auburn Montgomery (24) and Shorter was 13^th with 16 points.
 
Along with Farrar on the preseason team, Union led the way with two selections in Jaelencia Williams and Shanique Lucas, along with Haley Schubert of Lee and Zyaire Ewing of Delta State join Farrar on the team.
 
The Lady Blazers were picked 15^th in the WBCA Preseason Coaches Poll, as the highest ranked team in the GSC in the poll, followed by Union at 19^th, while Lee is receiving votes.  In the South Region, the Lady Blazers are second in the rankings behind Tampa at 11^th, while Tuskegee and Benedict are receiving votes.  VSU battles Benedict twice this season and also faces No. 22-ranked Bentley (Mass.) in the VSU Thanksgiving Tournament at The Complex, Nov. 26-27.
 
Defending national champion Lubbock Christian leads the poll after the Lady Chaps went 23-0 last season and downed Drury 69-59 in the championship for the program's second national title.  Drury is second in the preseason rankings, followed by Lander, who ended the Lady Blazers season a year ago with a heartbreaking 63-60 loss in the second round of the NCAA South Regional.  VSU had a 60-56 lead with 33 seconds left in the contest, but was unable to hang onto the lead.
 
VSU is among others receiving votes (2) in the D2SIDA Top 25, also released during the preseason.  In that poll, Union is 12^th, as the only GSC team in the top 25.  Lee, who VSU defeated in the first round of the NCAA South Regional last season, is the first team among others receiving votes with 34.  Tampa sits 16^th in the D2SIDA Top 25 among other teams from the region.  Bentley also is receiving votes.
 
Farrar, a native of Grovetown, Ga., joined an elite list of former Lady Blazers who have been named WBCA All-America over the years.  Farrar is the seventh Lady Blazer to earn WBCA All-America first team honors and the 14^th overall WBCA All-America honoree from VSU.  Prior to the formation of the WBCA, Carol Chason (1979) and Susan Taylor (1978-1979) earned First Team Kodak All-America honors for the Lady Blazers.  Janice Washington (1984), Candance Fincher (1987), Shannon Williams (1988-1990) and Dawn Wynn (1995) were the other first team honorees prior to Farrar. 
 
Along with the those mentioned above, Sue Ann Christie, who played for VSU from 1974-78, Diedre Williams (1992-96), Kathy Kennedy (1993-97), Tracy Sprolden (1997-2001), Carley Kuhns (Peterson) (2004-08), Brittany Ferguson (2010-2012) and Madi Mitchell (2015-2018) also earned WBCA All-America honors.  They were either second team, third team or honorable mention during their time in Titletown.
 
Farrar had an outstanding campaign as she also was named to the East Division First Team All-GSC.  Farrar made an immediate impact for the Lady Blazers as she scored a season-high 23 points and 11 rebounds in her first game in a Lady Blazer uniform in the season-opener against West Georgia.  Farrar went on to record 11 double-doubles for the year and had 16 games in double figures, including the final five games of the season.  She scored over 20 points three times.  Farrar was named to both the GSC All-Tournament Team and the NCAA Division II South Region All-Tournament Team.
 
She finished the season leading the team in scoring at 14.2 points per game.  Farrar was 134 of 226 from the field for a 59.3 average from the floor for ninth nationally and second in the GSC.  Her 134 field goals made were good for fourth in the GSC and 35^th nationally, while her 11 double-doubles put her tenth nationally and third in the league.  Farrar finished her season averaging 4.4 offensive rebounds per game for eighth nationally and second in the league, while she was finished 19^th nationally and third in the GSC in total rebounds with 214.  Her 9.7 rebounds per game put her 33^rd nationally and sixth in the league.  She had a team-high 23 blocks for the season in 22 games played and 22 starts.
 
Due to COVID, Farrar, who was a graduate student last season after graduating from USC Aiken, was granted another year and is part of a strong nucleus of returners coming back this season for the Lady Blazers.  Graduate student Delaney Bernard also returns this season, while now-junior Jirah Ards returns after earning second team all-conference honors in 2021.  Bernard averaged 7.1 points per game and drained a team-high 34 triples for the season.  She also played and started all 22 games.  Ards had an outstanding first season at VSU in 2020-21 as she started all 22 games, going 66 of 164 from the field (.402) and was 50 of 71 from the line (.704) while draining 15 treys.  She averaged 9.0 points per game and was second on the team in rebounding at 6.5 per game.  Ards had 66 assists for second on the team and 43 steals also were good for second on the team.  
 
Along with those three starters returning, the Lady Blazers return senior Abby Rouse who played in 21 games averaging 4.8 points per game and 3.3 rebounds per game, along with junior Shanice Nelson (4.1 ppg., 2.0 rpg), senior Kayla Frey (4.0 ppg., 3.4 rpg.), COVID freshman Taylor Searcy (3.8 ppg., 2.0 rpg.), sophomore Kendall Bollmer (3.2 ppg.) and COVID freshman India Jordan who played in seven games as a true freshman.  
 
Schirmer added the services of five talented newcomers, including four transfers.  Graduate transfer Nicole Heyn (5-11, F), comes to Titletown from Texas A&M-International University where she had an outstanding two seasons for the Dustdevils.  Heyn finished second on the team in scoring in 2019-20 at 12.1 points per game and led the team in rebounding (5.1), steals (68), field goals made (115), field goals attempted (293), along with 3-pointers made (51) and attempted (153).  
 
This past season, Heyn, a Spanish Fork, Utah, native, put together another fantastic season, earning Lone Star Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors, first team all-league honors and first team all-LSC defensive team accolades.  She led the LSC in total defensive rebounds (126) and was second in rebounds per game (9.7), steals (45) and steals per game (2.8). She set a career high in rebounding this season, securing 18 boards against Texas A&M-Kingsville and a season high of five steals in two different games. She also recorded seven double-doubles on the year, including five straight to end the year.  
 
Not only dynamic defensively, she was equally a threat on offensive. Heyn finished the season averaging 14.3 points per game and led the team in field goals made (73), field goals attempted (173), three pointers made (51), three pointers attempted (115), three-point percentage (44.3%), free throw percentage (91.4%), total points (229), rebounds (155) and steals.  After just two seasons at TAMIU, Heyn ended her career in the top ten all-time for 3-pointers made and attempted.  Prior to TAMIU, Heyn attended College of Southern Idaho for two seasons.
 
Mallory Odell joins the program this season as a graduate student.  She played at Division I Longwood University where she played for four seasons.  The 6-1, forward from Richmond, Va., played in 24 games last season with 23 made field goals in 53 attempts, along with four triples and six free throws.  She averaged 2.1 rebounds per game.  For her career, she played in 111 games with 44 starts for the Lancers.
 
A pair of Montana Junior College standouts also join the team this season in Miles Community College transfer Lili Long, a 6-0, forward from Melbourne, Australia, along with Dawson Community College standout Tamiya Francis, a 5-3, guard from Toronto, Ontario.  Both have a great opportunity to be impactful for the Lady Blazers immediately.  Freshman Grace Beyer, a 5-6, guard from Ponte Vedra, Fla., and Nease High School, also joins the team this season as she helped lead her team to a 7A state runner-up finish and was a co-captain of her team.
 
Check back with vstateblazers.com for information all season long on VSU women's basketball and all of VSU's 12 intercollegiate athletic programs.