Holy Cross College Saints Women's Basketball

09/04/2026

An update from Coach Robbins:
"We just completed our first week of conditioning. The players attacked the week with a lot of energy and focus. We only have two more weeks of conditioning with practice starting September 21st."

08/28/2026

Audrey ....

What does it look like when the Holy Cross Way becomes more than a ...

08/27/2026

Australia to Holy Cross College, Notre Dame, IN ! Coach Robbins on HOW Lily-Anne McClure became part of this recruiting class:

"Lily-Anne played for AUSA basketball club which is a group from Australia that usually always attends the Run for the Roses basketball event in Louisville, Kentucky. They are a big club that has several teams come to the event each year.

AUSA teams are usually distributed throughout the event at all talent levels and Lily-Anne was on their top team who often play U.S. teams with NCAA division 1 talent and exposure. I watched one of their games in Louisville, but the college coach seating was filled with D1 coaches, so I didn’t take too seriously being able to recruit any of their players on that team.

The next weekend there was a Prep Hoops event in Mishawaka at the new fieldhouse, so I attended the event and the AUSA teams were there. I met the program director while talking with Coach Hoffman from St. Mary’s and found out that the AUSA teams were staying on St. Mary’s campus for the weekend. AUSA’s program director asked me what I was looking for and our conversation led him to pointing out Lily-Anne. Her team was playing one of their games for that weekend when I first saw her. I admitted that I hadn’t really evaluated this team because of the D1 exposure, but he encouraged me to take a look and said that I might be surprised at the results I would find. Of course, Lily-Anne was exactly what we were looking for in terms of talent, skills, and potential. He coordinated us to meet the next morning at St. Mary’s before their Sunday set of games so that Lily-Anne could tour our campus. I took her throughout our campus and showed our facilities while talking about the program and Tricia McCarthy was so kind to even open a dorm room for us so that Lily-Anne could see it before Tricia went to Mass.

Lily-Anne and I continued to connect throughout the day as I watched her last two games in the U.S. that Sunday afternoon. They flew back to Australia the next morning and we stayed in contact over the next few weeks. I even had the opportunity to have a conference call with her and her parents before she eventually decided to commit.

Tom Robbins
Head Coach
Holy Cross College

08/22/2026

We are very excited for our 4th commit for 2027❕️ Hayden Scott is from Pleasant Valley High School in Riverdale, Iowa. She is a 6’0 combo forward much like Kaiden Hanley, Sincere Coleman-Francis, and Brooke Lindesmith. She has the classic power forward type strength, length, and athleticism but the skill set of a small forward with her ability to shoot the three, put the ball on the floor for the drive, and handle in the open court. She is also a versatile defender with her ability to get out in the open court to disrupt passing lanes, bodying post players on the block, or disrupting guards with her length.

08/19/2026

How it happened ...

08/18/2026

Saints Fans! Please welcome our 3rd addition to the 2027 class!
Lily-Anne McClure is a 6'1 forward from Australia. Athletically she is going to remind Saints fans of Grace Adams from two years ago who broke our scoring and rebounding records!

"Lily-Anne is similar to Grace with her ability to get up and down the floor and to guard bigger or smaller players in the half court. Offensively with our tendency to play more positionless the last couple of years she is a tremendous asset with her ability to score in the post or from behind the arc." - Tom Robbins, Head Coach

Lily-Anne is from Wodonga, Victoria. The 6-foot-1 forward plays for Basketball Victoria and the Melbourne Tigers.

Achievements include winning gold with the Victorian Bushrangers under -16 side at the Country Cup.

08/14/2026

We are very excited to announce the 2nd member to our 2027 class, Allison Ambers
!!! Alli is a 5'8 guard with great speed and athleticism coming from one of the best high school programs in the state -- Northridge High in basketball mad Middlebury!

Saints fans will love her energy and passion 🔥

To give you an idea of the kind of impact Amber can make, she had a week last season
where she had 18 points in a win over Wawasee, then a career-high 26 points plus 12 rebounds, six assists and five steals in a victory over Concord and then concluded her week with 24 points and six steals as the Raiders topped Portage Central, Mich., 67-23. For that week, Ambers sank 27-of-33 field goals, 7-of-11 3-pointers and 7-of-9 free throws!

08/10/2026

🏀 Coach Robbins on what is it like to go from a young team with one senior to this team with a lot of seniors and juniors:

"It seems like we have been the young team in the conference almost every season. With all the covid extra seasons that were used a few years ago by our opponents we only really got to be the old team once in the last seven seasons (2024-25). With that year’s senior class graduating a couple years ago along with a couple juniors who graduated early we got young again last year. Our lone senior was our point guard, and we only had two juniors that weren’t new to the squad. But losing only one player to graduation and retaining almost all the others means that we have a good year under our belt with this crew. Its nice to be able to build from what we were doing last season. We are in a place where we can be more versatile and affective with that foundation under us from a year ago. We do have a question to answer at the point guard position which is probably the worst position to have a question that needs answered but the returning players are determined to move forward from last year."

08/06/2026

💥Observations on the 2026-27 team:
"Starting with the seniors, we are looking for Brooke to be released in August from her knee surgery. She was able to get out on the floor some in camp for non-contact drills.

Lilly is primed to be a strong leader for us this year. Her voice in the locker room will be vital to our success and her spiritual leadership will be the foundation of our culture this year.

Laney is working towards an increased role this season. She has a varied skill set that can fill a lot of holes for us whether it be handling the point guard position, being the point of attack for our defense, guarding top players for opposing teams, stretching the defense with her three point shooting, or being a voice for leadership.

Brock put in good work during camp week trying to improve her defensive footwork. With the proper footwork she has the athleticism to guard smaller players which would be a huge lift to our defense and overall impact on opponents. Many of our opponents look to space the floor and play “small ball.” Players who have size and effectiveness at the rim who can also guard on the perimeter are very impactful to the team’s success.

Kaiden is primed for a big year on both sides of the ball as our only returning all-conference player. She looks like she is coming into the season in the best basketball shape of her life. With increased confidence and a positive approach, she will be an absolute handful for our opponents this year with her combination of size, athleticism, and skill.

Nadia is going to be a defensive menace to our opponents. We are looking for her to be the point of attack for our defense, and she was able to show some of that in our scrimmage games Friday. We will look to her to lead our press and erase the top scorers in our conference in one-on-one match-ups.

Sincere comes back for her sophomore year after making the all-conference freshman team last year. We will be looking for her to pick right up where she left off with her high percentage finishes at the rim, tremendous rebounding, and great defensive play.

Malea has come back from her freshman year bigger and stronger. She has put on some good muscle in the off-season due to her work in the weight room. We feel she is on the same trajectory that Kaiden was last year coming into her sophomore year where she had a breakout season.

Kenzie looks more confident and surer of herself as a sophomore than she did at the end of last season. With her strength, athleticism, and perimeter shooting we think she can be a big “3 and D” player for us where she can space the floor for us with her good perimeter shooting and put her nose into the chest of our opponents on the other end of the floor.

La’Bria’s brief freshman campaign a couple seasons ago was the talk of the conference and I could see the “uh-oh” in the eyes of the couple conference coaches that I’ve seen this summer when I mentioned she was returning. She has been out of basketball for a year and a half so there will be some rust to shake off but when she gets back into stride the sky is the limit. She will be a sophomore this year.

Our freshmen all bring something different to the table, but they all are good defenders who are intelligent overall players with great fundamentals.

At 6’1 Rachel brings more size to the table for us, but she is also a player who can guard smaller and bigger players on defense and score at three or in the post on offense.

Addison Penziol is a natural point guard who plays like a coach on the floor but also has more physical strength to protect the ball than our point guards of the past.

Addison Robbins is like Laney in that she has a varied skill set that can be plugged into different situations allowing her to be used as a ball-handler, shooter, or key defender based on the situations we see arise."

- Coach Tom Robbins

⏳️ The countdown is on for preseason game
Oct 14 (Wed) 7:00
vs Lake Michigan

08/05/2026

Coach, after a few days of reflection of Summer Camp, share with us more on why you are optimistic about this 2026-27 team.

"We have more competitiveness and intensity with this group than we did last year. A good number of players have put in a good offseason as well coming back significantly better than last year. We have gotten bigger, stronger, and longer than we were last year too. I think our defense and rebounding will be significantly improved which were issues for us last year. If we can (and that is a big if) score like we did last year all the ingredients will be there for a great season."