The 2026–27 Penn State Lady Lions basketball team will represent Pennsylvania State University during the 2026–27 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Lady Lions, led by first-year head coach Tanisha Wright, will play their home games at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania and compete as a member of the Big Ten Conference.
Previous season
The Lady Lions finished the 2025–26 season 11–18 overall and 4–14 in Big Ten play, to finish sixteenth in the conference. They failed to qualify for the Big Ten tournament for the second straight season.
On March 5, 2026, a week after the conclusion of the season, vice athletics director Dr. Patrick Kraft announced that head coach Carolyn Kieger had been fired after seven seasons with the program, in which she posted an 84–123 record. Following Kieger's firing, all ten remaining scholarship players entered the transfer portal. Four-star 2026 recruit Chikae Desdunes also decommitted from the program and re-opened her recruitment on March 24.
Two weeks later, on March 19, Kraft announced that Chicago Sky assistant coach and Penn State women's basketball alumna Tanisha Wright had been hired as the program's new head coach.
Offseason Departures Penn State departures Shaelyn Steele 2 Guard 5'6" Sophomore Ashland, KY Transferred to Tennessee Moriah Murray 3 Guard 5'8" Junior Dunmore, PA Transferred to Florida Maggie Mendelson 4 Forward 6'5" Senior North Ogden, UT Graduated, transferred to Pepperdine Viktoria Ranisavljevic 7 Guard 5'7" Freshman Massagno, Switzerland Transferred to UAB Nyla McFadden 8 Guard-Forward 6'0" Freshman Fort Lauderdale, FL Transferred to UCF Amiya Evans 14 Forward 6'2" Senior Pensacola, FL Graduated Tèa Clèante 19 Guard 5'9" Freshman Dunkirk, France Transferred to Kansas State Kiyomi McMiller 23 Guard 5'8" Sophomore Silver Spring, MD Transferred to Florida Shayla Smith 24 Guard 5'9" Freshman Philadelphia, PA Transferred to Temple Rachel Okokoh 25 Forward 6'4" Freshman Montreal, QC Transferred to Ole Miss Gracie Merkle 44 Center 6'6" Junior Mount Washington, KY Transferred to Minnesota
Incoming transfers Penn State incoming transfers Devyn Quigley 0 Guard 5'10" Junior New Brunswick, NJ NC State Savannah White 2 Forward/Guard 6'2" Graduate Student St. Paul, MN Xavier Petra Bozan 4 Forward 6'4" Junior Split, Croatia Nebraska Ava Black 6 Guard 5'11" Sophomore Auburn, NH Vanderbilt Enjulina Gonzalez 11 Guard 5'9" Graduate Student Miami, FL Georgia Skylar Durley 12 Guard 5'8" Sophomore Oklahoma City, OK Nevada Cristen Carter 24 Forward 6'4" Senior Indianapolis, IN Georgetown
Recruiting class
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=9 style=""| Exhibition
!colspan=9 style=""| Regular season
Sources:
References
Footnotes