After a winning their first NCCAA Region Tournament Championship since 2014, the Thunder start a new era in women's basketball as head coach Brad Willems takes the reins of the program. The Thunder won 17 games in 2025-26, a four win improvement from 2024-25. Willems takes over for Dalton Miller who took the head women's job at MidAmerica Nazarene University. The Thunder went 17-15 last season, 6-4 in the Midwest Christian College Conference, and 5-3 in the NCCAA Central Region. They would also have a 10-3 record at home in the Howie's Activity Center. With Willems at the helm, the Thunder look to continue their success that has been built over the past two seasons in Manhattan.

The Thunder return six women, who have been apart of the program in some capacity, led by two-time All-Conference and All-Region selection, redshirt-senior, Nekayla Williams. Along with Williams, junior, Elayna Wegner, who earned honorable mention All-Region as a freshman returns, while redshirt-junior and NCCAA Scholar-Athlete, Madison Ellis, and sophomore, Tatum Milenski, round out the returners who played significant minutes last season. Redshirt-senior, Atira Davis returns from injury, while redshirt-junior, Chantyl Perry returns to Manhattan after not playing last season, but played in the spring of 2025. Williams would lead the team in scoring and rebounding in 2024-25 and again in 2025-26 averaging 14.0 points and 9.6 rebounds, respectively. Wegner would play in all 32 games and average 5.5 points and 6.1 rebounds last season, while Milenski would average 10.3 minutes per game with Ellis averaging around seven minutes per game. Davis would only play two games before suffering a season-ending injury in 2025-26, while Perry played in 17 games and averaged 5.5 points in the spring of 2025.

Also, the Thunder add a mixture of only transfers to the team. The transfers are seniors, Shamaya Brown and Alexandria Craig, sophomore, Boston Tyler, and redshirt-freshman, Paige Corter. Brown, Craig, and Tyler all played for Willems last season at Central Christian College in Kansas. Craig played in 27 games, averaged 14.1 minutes per game, and 2.6 points, Brown played in 23 games, averaged 12.7 minutes per game, and 2.1 points, while Tyler played in 14 games, averaged 11.4 minutes per games, and 1.9 points.

Coach Willems, who opens his first season in Manhattan with an exhibition against Southwestern College (KS), had this to say about starting the 2026-27 season, "We are excited to get going. The girls are tired of just practicing. It will be good to get some film playing against another team and to see what we need to get better at!"

The Thunder open their season on the road on Monday, October 26th against the Southwestern College (KS) Moundbuilders at 5:00PM. This game will be considered an exhibition game for the Thunder.

Tickets for the 2026-27 season are now available on the SidelineTix app and website. To purchase tickets, fans can visit www.mccthunder.com and click the "Get Tickets" tab.

How to Follow the Thunder: For complete information and to stay up-to-date with Manhattan Christian College Women's Basketball, visit www.mccthunder.com and follow the team's social media pages on X and Instagram.