The ETSU women’s basketball team has flourished under the direction of Head Coach Brenda Mock during her first year at ETSU.
“I’ve always loved ETSU because when I was coaching at UNC Asheville, we would play ETSU and I admired the community and the fan support. I just love Johnson City,” said Mock.
The program earned a lot of records and made a complete turnaround from last season. They ended the season with a 23-9 overall record, tying them with the 2009-10 team for most wins in the program’s history.
In addition, the current program won the most non-conference games in history with a record of 13-3 for the season as well as the most wins in the regular season with 22 wins.
Mock came to ETSU after serving as head coach for the UNC Asheville team from 2010-20. Before UNC Asheville, she held multiple assistant coaching positions at UNC Charlotte, Georgia Tech, Jacksonville and the University of Florida.
“Being able to be a part of building and revitalizing is attractive to me. I love that opportunity, and I was really excited when this was presented to me in August,” said Mock.
Mock was recently named SoCon Coach of the Year.
“The program has accomplished a lot, but the cool thing is we’ve done it together. The thing that has been the most instrumental in our success has been the staff. We have great assistant coaches, and it has been a truly collaborative effort,” said Mock. “Yes, the responsibility for the program lies with me, but everybody is involved and has equal value. That is something we want our girls to feel: that everyone has value.”
Four athletes this season have been awarded for their hard work and achievements. Three earned postseason awards and one with a tournament award.
Sophomore Kendall Folley (Lebanon, Ohio) earned a spot on the All-Defense Team for the Coaches All-Southern Conference Women’s Basketball Teams and Second Team for the SoCon Sports Media Association (SCSMA). Folley also won SoCon Player of the Week two times this season.
Freshman Journee McDaniel (New Bern, North Carolina) earned a spot on the All-freshman Team from the SCSMA. McDaniel is the second-ranked freshman of the season in the conference.
Graduate student Jiselle Thomas (Norwalk, Ohio) earned a spot on the first team for both the SCSMA and Coaches Teams.
Junior Jakhyia Davis (Knoxville, Tennessee) earned a spot on the Second All-Tournament team after her performance in the SoCon tournament. Davis also earned this spot last in the 2021 season.
“Going into the tournament I was nervous. I felt a lot of pressure because we had to play Samford and they are a really good team, but to come out on top and perform really well was amazing,” said Davis.
