PURCHASE, N.Y. – Ahead of this weekend's season opener, the Manhattanville University women's basketball team has been voted in a tie for second in the 2025-26 Skyline Conference Preseason Coaches Poll, the conference unveiled on Tuesday.

The Valiants received 85 total points in the poll, tying Mount Saint Mary for second overall. Manhattanville received one of the total 11 first-place votes, with the Knights earning two and first-place Merchant Marine nabbing the other eight, earning 98 total points to be perched atop the poll.

Manhattanville finished last regular season in third place, finishing behind USMMA and Mount Saint Mary with an 18-7 overall record and a 15-5 mark in the Skyline Conference. The Valiants made their fifth-consecutive appearance in the Skyline Conference Championship Tournament, but their postseason run came to an end with a first-round matchup against Mount Saint Vincent.

The Valiants return both of their All-Conference selections from last year with Esther Ramos (Queens, N.Y./Forest Hills) and Julie Debrocky looking to go out on top in their senior seasons. The duo are joined by classmates Amanda Orlando (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) and Gabby Tucker (Port Chester, N.Y./Blind Brook) as the team's senior class, a foursome that were heavily featured in the game plan last year. The upperclassmen are joined by five other returners—junior Taylor Malone (Yonkers, N.Y./Kennedy Catholic Prep) and sophomores Kaitlyn Mangan (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield), Ryan Ford (Staten Island, N.Y./Notre Dame Academy), Kathleen O'Mara (Huntington, N.Y./Walt Whitman) and Madison Carlo (Carmel, N.Y./Kennedy Catholic)—as well as four incoming freshmen and a junior transfer in Aniyah Boston () to round out the squad.

Both DeBrocky and Ramos averaged double-figures offensively per game last year, with DeBrocky and Carlo shooting better than 30 percent from deep. While the team did lose one of its top rebounders in Niyona Smith (Baltimore, MD/Concordia Prep) to graduation, Ramos led the Valiants in 2024-25 with 7.2 rebounds per game, while O'Mara came down with more than five caroms a contest in her rookie campaign.

The Valiants open the new year on Sunday with a 2 p.m. tip-off against Geneseo inside Kennedy Gymnasium. Manhattanville gets its first taste of conference action on Nov. 19 at Mount Saint Vincent to begin a four-game stretch of Skyline play.

The full results of the 2025-6 Skyline Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Poll is below:

2025-26 Women's Basketball Preseason Poll
Rank, School, Pts., (First-Place Votes)
1. Merchant Marine, 98 (8)
T2. Mount Saint Mary, 85 (2)
T2. Manhattanville, 85 (1)
4. Farmingdale State, 69
5. Mount Saint Vincent, 65
6. St. Joseph's-Long Island, 62
7. St. Joseph's-Brooklyn, 45
8. Purchase, 35
9. Sarah Lawrence, 28
10. Yeshiva, 24
11. Old Westbury, 9

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