CULLOWHEE, N.C. --- Chattanooga women's basketball opened a new year and a new SoCon season with a bang on Thursday night in Cullowhee, as the Mocs fought their way to a 67-56 road victory over Western Carolina.

The Mocs (6-8, 1-0 SoCon) found themselves in a dogfight with the Catamounts (10-6, 0-1 SoCon) for a majority of the night at the Ramsey Center, but it was a career night from Caia Elisaldez that proved the difference for UTC as the sophomore's career-high 21 points helped guide the Mocs to a double-digit win in the long run.

"We talked a lot about how we had this time off," head coach Deandra Schirmer said. "We said we can look at it as a disadvantage, where we haven't played and everything like that, or we can look at it as an advantage. And we talked about, we're going to get real creative with this group. We have a really smart group, and we wanted to get creative with how we were going to be able to get an advantage against teams."

Schirmer, who was coaching in the first Southern Conference game of her career, was able to notch her first SoCon victory at the helm of UTC women's basketball in what was a milestone night for the first-year head coach. Schirmer also carries on a prestigious streak; in which every single head coach in program history, now including Schirmer, has won the very-first SoCon game that they've coached in with the Mocs.

The Mocs opened their night about as good as you could ask for defensively, locking down the Catamounts while Caia Elisaldez opened the game's scoring with a three-pointer 1:34 into the first quarter. While UTC proceeded to hold the lead for much of the frame, WCU grabbed their first lead of the night with 2:53 to go in the quarter.

Both teams traded buckets over the remaining couple of minutes, and it was ultimately an Ava Card three-pointer with just 0:07 left on the clock that gave Chattanooga a narrow 14-12 lead through the opening 10 minutes of action.

The game remained tight throughout the second, but heading towards the halftime break it looked as though the Mocs were going to be carrying the lead into the locker room. That was until Western Carolina's AC Carter connected on a buzzer-beating bucket to close out the half, flipping the scoreboard and lead in favor of WCU, 28-27, at the half.

The next 10 minutes were about as tight as a quarter of basketball could get as neither team would build up more than a four-point lead on the other. At the 1:12 mark of the quarter, a Karsen Murphy three would give the Mocs a lead that they would never lose again for the remainder of the evening. A couple more baskets by Elisaldez and Frode Flos van der Schans saw Chattanooga ahead 43-41 going into the final quarter of play.

From here on out, it was all Mocs across the board. Caia Elisaldez and Ava Card's scoring helped put the pedal to the floor for UTC, helping the Mocs create a sizeable 63-52 gap on the Catamounts. Strong rebounding efforts from multiple Mocs, as well as clutch free throws all but sealed the game as a back-and-forth contest ended up going handedly Chattanooga's way.

With a final score of 67-56, the Mocs kicked off the 2025 Southern Conference season in the win column.

Elisaldez would finish her night with 21 points, a career-high scoring effort for the Whittier, California, native. Ava Card (11), Brooke Anya (10) and Karsen Murphy (10) each added double figure scoring outputs of their own in the win. Card has now scored 10+ points in each of her last three games for the Mocs.

Anya ended up leading UTC with six rebounds while Sigrun Olafsdottir's three assists were a team-high in that stat. Olafsdottir would also tie Gianna Corbitt for a team-leading three steals on the night as well.

FROM THE HEAD COACH | QUOTES
On the defense against Western Carolina.
"And one of the things we talked about as an advantage was our defense. And this is a team that's averaging 70 points per game, and we held them to 56 which I don't know if that's their season low, but I'm sure it would be close to it. And so for us, you know, being able to do that. And then the other thing that I think I'm probably most proud about is that Western Carolina is a fantastic rebounding team, and the whole time we're talking about, if we out rebound them, we're going to win the game. If we out rebound them, we're going to win the game. And to out rebound them. 29-26 have 10 huge offensive rebounds down the stretch, winning play after winning play after winning play. And then, you know, we've, we've been in some tough situations, and we keep saying, Oh, we've made some rookie mistakes and down the stretch, and we've lost some close games, but I was really proud of how that paid off for us. It was a seven-point game with about two minutes left, and we were able to really bust it out and have that composure and take away some of their looks. And so for us, being able to have good situational basketball to finish out the game was I was really proud of as well."

TOP TAKEAWAYS | NOTES
- Today's game marked the 100th meeting all-time between the Mocs and the Catamounts.
- WCU is Chattanooga's most-played team in UTC's 51-year history. The next highest is ETSU (93 games).
- The Mocs now lead the all-time series 87-13.
- UTC has won its past five meetings with the Catamounts dating back to a loss to WCU on January 28, 2023 (WCU won 56-48).
- The last time the Mocs lost to the Catamounts in Cullowhee came all the way back on Feb. 22, 2010 (WCU won 51-49).
- Since then, the Mocs have won 14-straight road games in Cullowhee.
- The Mocs have now won each of their last three SoCon openers.
- Deandra Schirmer continues the streak of every Chattanooga head coach in program history winning their first SoCon game (dating back to Chattanooga joining the SoCon in 1984).
- Since then, Sharon Fanning, Craig Parrott, Wes Moore, Jim Foster, Katie Burrows, Shawn Poppie and now Deandra Schirmer each were victorious in the very-first SoCon game that they coached in.
- UTC shot the ball at a 45.5 percent clip (25-for-55) from the field.
- The Mocs are now 6-3 this season when shooting above 40 percent from the floor as a team.
- UTC out-rebounded the Catamounts 29-26 overall on the night.
- The Mocs are 6-2 this season when out-rebounding their opponent.
- This was thanks in large part to Chattanooga out-rebounding WCU 9-1 in the fourth quarter.

UP NEXT: UNCG
Chattanooga will now brave the winter storm looming over the southeastern corner of the United States to make the trek over the Greensboro, North Carolina for a Saturday contest against the UNCG Spartans in what will be a rematch of the 2024 SoCon Tournament title game. Opening tip against the Spartans is currently slated for 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, and fans that are hunkered down in their snow-covered houses will be able to catch the game either on ESPN+ or over the radio on WFLI 104.3 FM. Continue to follow along with GoMocs.com or the Chattanooga women's basketball social media accounts for any updates regarding postponement/cancellation of Saturday's game due to the weather.

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