Rice Women’s Basketball announced the additions of three players from the Transfer Portal: Reychel Douglas (Alabama), Lilly Tauleilei (Iowa State) and Paige Cofer (Utah Tech).
During head coach Lindsay Edmonds’ tenure, Rice Women’s Basketball has been led primarily by homegrown players. But while many of the stars have been recruited from the high school ranks, Edmonds and her staff have made sure to supplement their developmental pipeline with the right adds from the transfer portal.
They hope the same will be true this year with the additions of Reychel Douglas, Lilly Tauleilei and Paige Cofer all of whom were formally announced by the program on social media over the last few weeks.
Douglas was a highly-regarded recruit, coming out of high school in North Carolina before signing with Alabama. She appeared in 17 games as a true freshman during the 2023-2024 season before missing all the following year with a torn ACL. The 6-foot guard saw action in seven games this season with the Tide before entering the Transfer Portal and heading to South Main.
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Tauleilei began her career at UMass, making 22 starts in 31 appearances as a true freshman in the 2023-2024 season, averaging 6.7 points and 2.5 rebounds per game while shooting 45.3 percent from the floor. From there, the 6-foot-3 forward transferred to Iowa State, where she played in 43 games across the past two seasons with the Cyclones, primarily as a reserve.
Rice women’s basketball also made one add from outside the power conference ranks, picking up a pledge from Utah Tech’s Paige Cofer, which is a bet on production more so than it is on pedigree, like the prior two commitments.
The sophomore forward started 28 of 29 games for Utah Tech this past season, averaging 8.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. She’s seen plenty of court time and performed well. The next step will be taking it up a notch when she faces American conference competition.
Cofer, Douglas and Tauleilei will each hope to follow in the footsteps of Louann Battiston, who made the leap from reserve at Duke to American Conference Sixth Player of the Year in her first season with Rice women’s basketball, becoming a crucial part of the Owls’ rotation as the season progressed.