Across women’s college basketball, sophomores can’t be stopped

Her No. 6-ranked Wolverines fell short of completing a comeback that would have knocked off the defending champions. She also wasn’t named MVP of the game.

But Michigan sophomore Syla Swords delivered the show-stopping performance of the 2025-26 women’s college basketball season on Friday night. 29 points, highlighted by eight 3s, nine rebounds and three assists from the sprightly Swords had No. 1 UConn the brink. It was an electric effort that burnished Swords’ status as one of the sport’s ultimate gamers: When the lights are bright and pressure rises, she’s ready.

Even after quiet afternoon during Michigan’s blowout win over Syracuse on Sunday, Swords, who is averaging 14 points and 6.0 rebounds on the season, headlines a surfeit of sophomores who have turned in standout performances.

Among those are her teammates Olivia Olson, the wing who leads the Wolverines in scoring and put up an 18-point and 10-rebound double-double against UConn, and Mila Holloway, the point guard who paces the Michigan attack with almost six assists per game. Te’Yala Delfosse, another sophomore already cited as a potentially key piece for Michigan, had her best game in Maize and Blue on Sunday, leading the Wolverines over the Orange with a career-high 21 points.

Of course, a huge reason the Huskies held off the Wolverines on Friday night was due to the best sophomore—and best player regardless of class—in the sport: Sarah Strong. At this point, it’s become almost exhausting to expound upon how excellent Strong is. Against Michigan, she pulled down a career-high 20 rebounds to go with her 16 points, six assists, four blocks and three steals. Strong, as is her wont, seemed to see her effort as unremarkable, saying, “I mean, yeah, I was just..rebounding.”

Well, we’re impressed by Strong, Swords and these other sophomores:

Joyce Edwards (South Carolina)

Even before she scored a season-high 25 points in South Carolina’s Sunday afternoon obliteration of Queens, Joyce Edwards was leading the No. 2 Gamecocks in scoring.

She’s now upped the 12.7 points-per-game average of her freshman season to 19.8 per contest. Also entrenched starter after coming off the bench last season, Edwards’ increased offensive role has come with increased efficiency, as she is connecting on 61.3 percent of her field goal attempts. Her 1.8 blocks per game also reflect greater defensive activity.

In short, Edwards is better—and South Carolina might be as well.

Liv McGill is the fuel for Florida.

She’s scoring 26 points and dishing 6.8 assists per game, marks that rank third and sixth in the nation, respectively. So it is unsurprising that she stands second to only Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo in total points produced per game. In Hidalgo-esque fashion, McGill also makes a difference defensively, nabbing 4.8 steals per game, which is tied for third-best in the nation.

In the second game of the season, McGill approached quadruple-double territory, with her career-high 38 points accompanied by 10 assists, eight rebounds and seven steals. Most recently, McGill dropped 27 points on in-state rival Florida State, ensuring the Gators took care of the Seminoles with ease.

We’ll see if her production can translate into some upset wins for the Gators in the SEC.

Who needs the next Caitlin Clark when you have a combination of Megan Gustafson and Monika Czinano?

The effortless post play of the 6-foot-4 forwards recalls the stylings of successful bigs who donned the Black and Gold. Heiden’s 18-point and 11-rebound double-double led No. 19 Iowa in their upset win over No. 7 Baylor. She then followed that up with 20 points as the Hawkeyes edged Miami to remained unbeaten.

Heiden leads the Hawkeyes in scoring and rebounding, with 15.8 points and 8.8 boards. Like Gustafson and Czinano before her, she also puts the ball in the basket efficiently, with a field goal percentage of 63.3 percent.

Baylor was on the verge of a second-straight loss, with the Bears about to suffer a fall-from-ahead overtime loss to Davidson after a defeat to Iowa.

But Yuting Deng saved her squad by taking her defender off the dribble, driving to the basket and converting the game-winning layup with three seconds to go.

While Deng did commit a costly turnover at the end of regulation, her overall performance, even before the game-winner, more than made up for the miscue. She finished the game with a season-high 12 points, misfiring on only one of her six shots and hitting both of her 3-pointers.

Deng, a 6-foot-2 guard who spent her freshman season at Auburn, has played in every game for the Bears, shooting almost 59 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3 in her approximately 15 minutes per game.

Mary Moses Amaniyo (UTEP)

Remember the name Mary Moses Amaniyo.

The 6-foot-1 forward from Uganda’s second collegiate season has started off with a bang due her bursty athleticism that could attract the interest of Power Four programs.

Although she’s come off the bench in all of UTEP’s four games, she’s still averaging a nation-leading 15 rebounds, highlighted by the 22 rebounds she corralled in the Miners’ opening day win. She’s equally prolific on the offensive and defensive glass, while also showing an efficient finishing touch. Thus far, she’s shooting better than 60 percent from the field while scoring 15 points per game.

Powered by Amaniyo’s 15-point and 15-rebound double-double average, UTEP is off to a 4-0 start.

Undefeated Oregon is benefitting from the blossoming of point guard Katie Fiso, whose 8.2 assists per game put in her the top five nationally.

After playing a limited bench role for the Ducks last season, Fiso has assumed the starting role and almost instantly become an efficient offensive operator, with her assists balanced by less than three turnovers per game and complemented by 14.5 points on 61.9 percent shooting from the field.

In the Ducks’ recent win over Washington State, she scored a career-high 22 points on 10-for-14 shooting, while also notching eights assists.

Vernell Atamah (Northwestern State)

The 3 is more powerful than ever in women’s college basketball, which means Vernell Atamah might have superpowers.

The 6-foot-0 forward leads the nation with 4.3 made 3s per game, a byproduct of her shooting 48.9 percent on 9.4 3-point attempts per game. It’s no shocker that she’s also Northwestern State’s leading scorer, scoring 22.8 per game after averaging 13.9 as a freshman. Atamah’s 3-point percentage was under 30 percent last season, suggesting her sharpshooting is not quite sustainable. However, establishing one’s reputation as a 3-point shooting threat also matters. And with two games in which she attempted 12 triples, Atamah surely has convinced Southland Conference opponents that she must be guarded.

In Northwestern State’s latest win, in which the Demons rang up 103 points on overmatched Arkansas Baptist, Atamah made five 3s on her way to a season-high 28 points. Before that, Atamah contributed five of NSU’s program-record 14 3s in a rout of Ecclesia.

Expect Atamah to be firing off 3s when the Demons try to upset Virginia on Monday night at the Emerald Coast Classic in Destin, FL. In two prior games against Power Four opponents, losses at Nebraska and Kansas, she totaled six 3s and 39 points.