MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. | The title defense is on. Florida Memorial University enters the 2023-24 season as the defending Sun Conference champions. Their journey to repeat as champions begins Friday, October 27 where they'll host Fort Lauderdale for the season opener.

Roderick Woods enters his first season as Interim Head Women's Basketball Coach, taking over for Gregory Stanback, who retired at the end of the 2022-23 season. Woods will bring his wealth of coaching experience to the reigning Sun Conference champions, having coached women's basketball for over 21 years at every level from junior college to NCAA Division I.

"We are definitely excited about getting the opportunity to play against someone else," said Coach Woods. "Because our kids have been chomping at {the} bit with very competitive practices and {they're} ready to take on someone else besides ourselves."

The 2022-23 season for FMU was the most successful in program history. With a 24-6 overall record and a 15-1 conference record that led to the conference championship and a trip to the NAIA national tournament.

"We will count on our experience from our upperclassman to bring leadership and poise during adversity with eight new players."

FMU returns six players from last year's team, including 2022-23 first team all-conference player Chantel Barnett, who is just 10 points shy of scoring 1,000 points in a Lions uniform.

"My outlook for this season is to find our identity sooner than later, and have everyone on {the} team in roll where they will be successful which makes our team better as our season progresses."

Tip-off is slated for 5 p.m. at the FMU Wellness Center.