Mataya Gayle, a first-year guard on the women’s basketball team, has been named Ivy League Rookie of the Year.
From Woodstock, Georgia, Gayle ranks third on the team in scoring, averaging 14.1 points per game, and is tops on the team in assists (83), steals (40), and three-point field goals (49). She averages 31.4 minutes per contest and shoots .396 from the field, .295 from behind the arc, and .800 from the foul line.
Gayle has scored in double figures in 19 of Penn’s 27 games. She put up a season-high 28 points in Penn’s 72-69 victory over Maine on Dec. 30. She also scored 25 points in an 85-79 defeat of Siena on Nov. 19, 23 points in an 87-52 loss to No. 23 Marquette on Dec. 3, and 21 points in an 85-55 loss to Columbia on Jan. 27.
Against Yale on Feb. 3, she played 44 of 45 minutes in the Quakers’ 74-68 overtime loss. She had 18 points, six rebounds, and three steals.
Gayle is the seventh Quaker to earn Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors and the sixth during the Mike McLaughlin era.
Penn is 15-12 overall and 7-7 in the conference headed into this weekend’s Ivy League Tournament. On Friday, March 15, the fourth-seeded Quakers will take on top-seeded Princeton at 4:30 p.m. at Columbia. The victor will play the winner of the Columbia vs. Harvard game on Saturday at 5 p.m. for the Ivy League title and an NCAA Tournament berth. Princeton won both regular season matchups.
