Women's Basketball Opens 2026-27 Season at Florida in Monday Night Game

Monday, November 2

Gainesville, Fla.

6 p.m.

Bucknell University

Florida

10/30/2026 10:54:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Bucknell Women's Basketball at Florida

Women's Basketball

at Florida

Nov 2, 2026 at 6 p.m.

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Bucknell women’s basketball is opening its 2026-27 season with a Monday night contest against SEC opponent Florida in Gainesville. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2.

This will be the first time that Bucknell women’s basketball sees an SEC opponent since 2002, when it faced off with Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The weekday evening clash will also be the first time in program history that Bucknell and Florida play in women’s basketball, with the winner earning a 1-0 record over the other.

MEDIA LINKS

Watch: SECN+ | Radio: 90.5 WVBU | Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com

Live Stats: floridagators.com | Media Notes: Bucknell | Follow on X: @Bucknell_WBB

BUCKNELL AT A GLANCE

Bucknell enters the 2026 season with a road game against major SEC opponent Florida. The Bison have not seen an SEC opponent since 2002, when they faced off with Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Bucknell's leading returner in points per game is Elana Weisman. Despite only seeing time in nine games due to an injury ending her season, Weisman had 10.4 points per game. Reese Zemitis followed Weisman and is the returning leader in total points with 263 on the season and she recorded 9.7 per game.
Anna Kunzwiler led the team in rebounds per game in 2025-26 with 4.5. She is also the returning leader in assists per game with 1.37 and total steals with 30.
Reese Zemitis led the team in total blocks with 23 last season.
The Bison finished their 2025-26 season 11-19 overall with a 7-11 Patriot League record.
Bucknell returned eight players from last season and lost five to a combination of graduation and the transfer portal.
The Bison welcomed four newcomers to the squad ahead of the 2026-27 season; three freshman and one sophomore transfer.
Standout Reese Zemitis returns to the Bison for her junior year. As a freshman, she earned 2024-25 All-Patriot League Rookie Team honors. The Bison lost their lone 2025-26 All-Patriot League player, Tuana Coskun, to the transfer portal.
Bucknell was picked sixth in the 2026-27 Patriot League Preseason Poll. This is a step above last season, when they were picked seventh and finished seventh.
The Bison did not place any members on the Preseason All-Patriot League Team this season.
Junior Reese Zemitis has been named captain of the Bison for the 2026- 27 season.
Bucknell women's basketball is entering its eighth season under head coach Trevor Woodruff. Woodruff was named Patriot League Coach of the Year in his first two seasons with the Bison.
In addition to Woodruff and returning coaches Lauren Holden (associate head coach), Edward Joyner Jr. (assistant coach) and Danielle Patterson (assistant coach), the Bison had a new addition to their coaching staff in the off-season. Erin Jones joined Bucknell as its new Director of Basketball Operations and assistant coach.

FLORIDA AT A GLANCE

Florida enters 2026-27 under the direction of a new head coach in Tammi Reiss. Reiss formerly spent seven seasons as the head coach at Rhode Island where she went 138-73 overall.
Along with Reiss, the Gators brought in four new coaches; Shay Robinson, Tahnee Balerio, CJ Jones and Jen Fay. The lone returner to Florida's coaching staff is Cynthia Jordan.
Florida is entering the 2026-27 season with just one returning player from its 12-person 2025-26 squad.
The Gators lost one player to graduation and 10 to the transfer portal after their 2025-26 season.
Junior Jade Weathersby is the lone returner. She averaged 5.1 points per game, 3.5 rebounds per game, .54 assists per game and .33 steals per game last season. She played in 26 of the Gator's games and saw no starts.
Reiss and her staff added 12 newcomers to the squad to make it a total of 13 student-athletes.
10 of the 12 incoming players came from the very active transfer portal.
Vanessa Harris is a sophomore guard that followed Coach Reiss from Rhode Island to Florida. The Gators also brought in a second sophomore guard transfer from South Georgia Technical College in Ja'Niya Broome.
Five junior transfers and three senior transfers were brought in to bring a veteran presence to the squad in addition to Weathersby.
Florida signed two freshmen, one guard and one center, to round out the squad.

BUCKNELL / FLORIDA SERIES HISTORY

This will be the first meeting between the two teams in program history.

Fun Fact: Bucknell's Director of Basketball Operations and assistant coach Erin Jones played for Florida's head coach Tammi Reiss during her senior year of college at URI.

MILESTONE / RECORD WATCH

Reese Zemitis is two three-pointers away from a share of 10th place in the Bucknell record book for career three-pointers.
Isabella Casey is five field goals away from 100 career field goals.
Zemeitis is eight field goals away from 200 career field goals.
Anna Kunzwiler is six points away from 200 career points.
Kunzwiler is five rebounds away from 200 career rebounds.
Elana Weisman is eight points away from 200 career points.

INSIDE THE RECORD BOOK

The 2025-26 team set multiple single-game team records against Gwynedd Mercy; Widest Margin of Victory (79), 3-pt. Field Goals (15) and Assists (31).
Reese Zemitis is currently eighth in career three-point attempts with 335.
Zemitis holds sixth place in three-pointers made in a single season with 62 in 2024/25 and fifth place in three-point attempts in a single season with 169 in 2024/25.

INSIDE THE 2026-27 SCHEDULE

Bucknell opens the 2026-27 season with a difficult non-conference slate beginning with two road games. First up Bucknell faces SEC opponent Florida in Gainesville for a Monday night game on November 2 at 7 p.m. The Bison then stay on the road and face Brown on Saturday, Nov. 7 in Providence.
The first home game of Bucknell's 2026-27 season is a Wednesday night contest with Fordham at 6 p.m. on November 11.
The Bison then have two more on the road against Mount St. Mary's on November 14 and UAlbany on November 18.
Bucknell then heads back home on Saturday, Nov. 21 for a game against Iona in Sojka before traveling to Syracuse on a quick turnaround ahead of Thanksgiving to face Le Moyne on Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 7 p.m.
The Bison will then play again on Friday, Nov. 27 in Sojka Pavilion against Delaware State at 1 p.m before heading back on the road for yet another quick turnaround game, this time in Chicago against DePaul on Sunday, Nov. 29.
The Bison will then have almost a week off before going to Harrisonburg, Va. to take on James Madison on Saturday, Dec. 5.
The Bison host their Education Day Game on Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 11 a.m. before playing in Syracuse's early game on Friday, December 18 at 10 a.m.
To close out the non-conference season, the Bison will play host to Delaware on Monday, Dec. 21.
To open up Patriot League play, Bucknell will face the team that knocked them out in the first round of the 2025-26 playoffs, Colgate, in Hamilton on Wednesday, Dec 30.
Bucknell will then host Navy and Boston University in back-to-back games on Saturday, Jan.2 and Wednesday, Jan. 6.
On Saturday, January 9, the Bison will head to Bethlehem to take on Lehigh before coming back to Sojka to play Army on Wednesday, Jan. 13.
Then the Bison will have two straight road games against Loyola on Saturday, Jan. 16 and Holy Cross on Wednesday, Jan. 20.
Next up, the Bison will host Colgate on Saturday, Jan. 23 and American on Wednesday, Jan. 27 before heading back on the road for games at Army and Navy on Saturday, Jan. 30 and Wednesday, Feb.3.
Bucknell will host Lehigh and Holy Cross back-to-back in Sojka on February 6 and February 10 and then head back on the road for back-to-back games against Lafayette and BU on February 13 and February 17.
The Bison will close out the regular season with a Saturday afternoon game in Sojka against Loyola on February 20, a road game at American on Tuesday, Feb. 23 and then a final game at home on Friday, Feb. 26 against Lafayette.
The Patriot League playoffs will take place from Monday, March 1 through Tuesday, March 9.

How to Follow the Bison

All of Bucknell's home and Patriot League games will be streamed on ESPN+ along with most other non-conference games.
The season opener against Florida will be streamed on SECN+.
The Friday, Dec. 18 contest with Syracuse will be streamed on ACCNX.
All of the Bison's games will be broadcast on 90.5 WVBU. The radio broadcast will also be available for internet streaming on BucknellBison.com.
Bucknell is active on X (@Bucknell_WBB) and Instagram (Bucknell_WBB).
Interact with the team using the hashtags #rayBucknell and #TST