USI Women’s Basketball’s Raley and Shafford receive All-OVC selections
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Ohio Valley Conference announced on Tuesday that University of Southern Indiana Women’s Basketball graduate forward Meredith Raley and senior guard Vanessa Shafford were recognized with All-OVC honors for the second consecutive year.
The league’s head coaches and communication directors voted upon the OVC’s postseason accolades.
Raley was named to the All-OVC First Team for 2024-25. Raley paced USI this season with 13.6 points per game and shooting 51.3 percent from the floor. Raley’s scoring ranked top 10 in the OVC while leading the conference in field goal percentage. Raley was second on the team with five boards per outing and had a team-best 17 blocked shots. In conference play, Raley recorded 13.8 (11th in OVC) points while shooting over an OVC-best 53 percent.
During the conference season, Raley tallied double figures in 16 games including four 20-point outings. Raley set a new career mark with 29 points on the road at Southeast Missouri State University on January 9, earning OVC Player of the Week for the second time in 2024-25 the following week. The forward posted two double-doubles during the month of February. Raley reached 1,500 career points on January 28 at Morehead State University and has since moved into the top five on USI’s all-time scoring list. Raley also set a USI record for total games played during the OVC slate while eclipsing over 100 games started.
Shafford was named to the All-OVC Second Team. Shafford was top 15 in the OVC in overall scoring and second on the team with 12.3 points per game. Once again, Shafford topped the squad with 6.6 rebounds per game, which ranked fifth in the conference. Shafford shot over 45 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three-point range. Shafford’s two made threes per contest ranked fifth in the OVC. The guard was third on USI in assists and steals. During league play, Shafford averaged 12.7 points (13th in OVC) and 6.9 rebounds (7th in OVC) per game.
Shafford dropped 10 or more points in 15 OVC games and scored over 20 points in two conference games. Shafford’s conference high was 24 points on February 8 against Southeast Missouri State. The senior had four double-doubles in OVC play. It was also during the OVC season that Shafford broke the USI Women’s Basketball record for most three-pointers made on January 12 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Shafford has since drained over 200 three-pointers in her career.
Southern Indiana reached 20 wins and clinched a berth into the OVC Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament for the second consecutive season. USI will take the court to start its quest as reigning OVC tournament champions this Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. from Ford Center in downtown Evansville, Indiana. As the no. 5 seed, the Screaming Eagles square off against 8-seeded Tennessee State University in a rematch of the regular-season finale.
All games from the OVC Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament can be seen live with a subscription to ESPN+. 95.7 FM The Spin and 97.7 FM WREF will have radio coverage of USI contests. Tickets for the OVC Tournament are on sale through the USI Ticket Office online. For more information, call the USI Ticket Office at 812-465-1189.
