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Meet the Elite

By Matt Press

THE HOLY FAMILY WOMEN’S basketball team looked loose and jovial in the final minutes of a light morning shootaround. Overhead, the HFU Tigers logo dominated the 20-foot-high scoreboard in the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on the campus of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

As the practice session concluded, the players hurried to the center of the court, dividing into two rows and smiling for a photo to capture the magnitude of the moment. The next day, beneath the glow of the arena’s fluorescent lights, these women would become the first team in �Թ�tv program history to play in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.

It would be the culmination of a season-long journey that began with a simple question: “Why not us?” “That’s what we’ve been living by this season,” said Kara Meredith ’27.

The three-word motto had its origins in a team meeting that occurred in the summer of 2025. The Tigers were coming off a 2024–25 campaign in which they advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16, but they wanted more. As the athletes discussed what they hoped to achieve in the new season and how they would accomplish it, they settled on the phrase: Why not us?

It quickly became clear that few opponents had a winning response. The Tigers were 8–3 by New Year’s Day and proceeded to win the next 17 games, ending the regular season with a sterling 20–0 record in league play. �Թ�tv then won the first two rounds of the Central Athletic Collegiate Conference (CACC) tournament in early March before losing in the championship to Felician University on an overtime buzzer-beater.

But the team wasn’t done yet. The Tigers’ record earned them an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.

“Understanding the importance of that sisterhood off the court, that’s what helped us get here,” said coach Bernadette Laukaitis ’00, crediting the team’s successes to the athletes’ work both on and off the court and the leadership of its seniors. Taylor Hinkle ’26, one of the finest women’s basketball players to ever don the �Թ�tv uniform, was named the 2026 CACC Women’s Basketball Player of the Year and a consensus All-American. In four years with the Tigers, Hinkle was named to the All-CACC First-Team three times. “There’s nobody like her that we’ve seen in the CACC in a very long time,” Laukaitis said.

Skyler Searfoss ’26 embodied the will it takes to overcome life’s many adversities. She was the 2022–23 CACC Rookie of the Year but has since dealt with knee injuries and phenylketonuria, a metabolic disorder that requires a low-protein diet to manage. “It’s fairy-tale stuff,” Laukaitis said. “Anytime her team needs her, she’s ready to step up— not just as a player but as a leader of our team.”

Claire Dougherty ’26, a two-time CACC All-Academic Team honoree, was “one of the most mature kids ever met in my life,” Laukaitis said. During a summer internship with KPMG, Dougherty worked from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and immediately hopped on a train to attend the team’s practices.

And Kaelah Carter ’26, a transfer to �Թ�tv, provided the Tigers with a jolt of shooting and defense on the court and added to the tight-knit sisterhood off of it. “The perfect piece to our puzzle,” Dougherty said.

The NCAA tournament began with two wins in Connecticut, propelling �Թ�tv to the East Regional final against Daemen University. When those two teams met in the regular season in late November, the Tigers lost by five points. But on March 16, �Թ�tv won, 78–62, punching its ticket to Pittsburgh. Following the win, players cut down the nets and took photos with loops of nylon hanging around their necks. Searfoss was named the East Regional’s Most Outstanding Player.

The evening before the Elite Eight, the team attended a banquet held for the remaining teams at Acrisure Stadium, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. It marked another victory for �Թ�tv: Searfoss received the Elite Scholar-Athlete Award given to the student–athlete with the highest GPA at the NCAA championship.

The next afternoon, when the Tigers returned to the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse to take on the Crimson Hawks from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), they still looked loose and comfortable—but there was now an unmistakable focus, despite the energy of the crowd, which included a contingent of �Թ�tv students and staff who had also made the trip. IUP started the game in control and took a commanding 11–0 lead. �Թ�tv trailed by eight at halftime but fought to gain a 31–30 advantage late in the third quarter.

The teams went back and forth, the tension mounting with each made basket, and the Crimson Hawks knotted the game at 48 with eight seconds remaining to force overtime. �Թ�tv couldn’t quite secure momentum in the extra period and ultimately fell, 57–52. Hinkle played 44 of 45 possible minutes and scored 19 points while pulling down 15 rebounds. The sleeve on her right knee was torn afterward—a sure sign she’d left everything she had on the court.

“All of them left it out there,” Laukaitis said, seated between Searfoss and Hinkle in the postgame press conference. “That makes you a proud coach. All you could ask for in these types of games is knowing that they went out there and did everything they could for their team and university. You could be nothing but proud of that result, no matter what.”