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Northwestern Women’s Basketball Player Previews: The returners
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- Northwestern Women’s Basketball Player Previews: The returners
It's safe to say that Carla Berube has quite the project on her hands for Northwestern Women's Basketball this season.
With a mixed bag of three first-years, four transfers and eight returners, only one of which was a starter last season, the Wildcats will have to figure out how to fill the Caroline Lau-and Grace Sullivan-shaped holes in the assists and points column.
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The returning roster features six upperclassmen and two sophomores. All these players, except Casey Harter and Xamiya Walton, got limited playing time under former Northwestern head coach Joe McKeown. This season will hinge on one question: Who will step up for this team, especially given a roster that has largely yet to see success on an individual (and team) basis in the Big Ten?
Let's take a closer look at the eight players and what they could bring to the table.
Casey Harter
Senior | guard | 5-foot-11 | Harleysville, Pennsylvania
If Northwestern's media day footage is any indication, Casey Harter seems poised to be the new poster girl of this team. One thing that McKeown — and, similarly, Berube — seem to enjoy is a player with an upwards trajectory, and Harter fits that mold to a T.
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Over her Northwestern career, Harter has steadily improved as a shooter, raising her 5.3 PPG first year average to 10 PPG as a junior. On the other side of the court, Harter's blocks tally has doubled from seven in 2023-24 to 14 in the 2025-6 season.
Harter also shines against top opponents: last season, she had 14 points against No. 18 Michigan State and put up 20 against USC (how wonderful could it be if she replicated that this year?). Her decisiveness on the court can raise this program to the highest level possible, and her experience will give her the tools to do so. She was also recently named one of three captains on the team, showing the trust the program has in her.
Xamiya Walton
Junior | guard | 5-foot-7 | Chicago, Illinois
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Similarly to Harter, Xamiya Walton is shaping up to be one of the program's new hand-picked stars. Though a shorter guard in the Big Ten at 5-foot-7, Xamiya excels in one category specifically: 3-point shooting. Last year, she led the team in 3-point conversion attempts, shooting 38.7% from the arc.
Xamiya was the backup guard under Joe McKeown, but without the likes of Caroline Lau this year to open up the back court, the onus is on Xamiya to take over that ball-handler role. Her three-point shooting also heavily relies on solid cross-court ball movement to find her in open spots; team chemistry is thus critical to her success.
If Xamiya can continue to bring the flair she does to the court and deal with a Big Ten that is constantly getting taller and taller, she could have more moments like this:
Kat Righeimer
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Junior | guard/forward | 6-foot-1 | Costa Mesa, California
Xamiya Walton and Harter currently carry the majority of returners' minutes. There is a massive drop between Xamiya's 842 minutes last season and Righeimer's 170, but that is the reality that Northwestern is having to face.
Righeimer will be an interesting case study for this upcoming season, all things considered. She got the majority of her minutes in the back end of the 2025-26 season, closing out the final six games of the Wildcats' season and scoring 18 points in 22 minutes against Penn State.
Righeimer averaged 1.4 rebounds per game and 2.9 PPG last year. It's unlikely that she gets the start ahead of some of Berube's newer transfer portal recruits, but her height will help push her up the bench a bit more.
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Claire Keswick
Junior | guard | 6-foot-0 | Wrentham, Massachusetts
The only reason why Claire Keswick hasn't been in too many conversations regarding Northwestern's reserves is that her season ended in January 2026. She tallied 131 minutes across 16 games, and most certainly would have doubled that figure by the end of the season if not for injury.
Like Righeimer, we can only extrapolate from Keswick's ceiling: her six made treys against Cleveland State in November 2025 show her capacity from distance, something that Northwestern could very much utilize in the future. If Keswick is healthy, she could be one of Berube's key rotational options this year.
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Amparo López
Sophomore | guard | 5-foot-9 | Valencia, Spain
If one could sum up Amparo López in a single word, it would be dynamic. López's first year as a Wildcat, in terms of sheer numbers, was not too impressive — 19 points over 100 minutes in 20 games. López, however, also had to compete with some of the NCAA's top creators in Lau and Sullivan.
The energy she has brought to the court each and every time she played is palpable and exceeds the bounds of the box score. Hailing from Spain, López focuses less on American physicality and more on a high-IQ style of play. López will be fun to watch on the court this season if fully healthy.
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Crystal Fuqu Wang
Senior | forward | 6-foot-2 | Beijing, China
With just 199 minutes under her belt as a Wildcat over her freshman through junior seasons, it is unlikely that Crystal Wang will see any significant minutes this season. A season-ending injury suffered in her sophomore year just before Thanksgiving meant she tallied just 15 minutes in 2024-25, and Wang has not gotten significant time on the court since.
Rachel Mutombo
Senior | forward | 6-foot-3 | Silver Spring, Maryland
Rachel Mutombo finds herself in a similar situation as Wang. She played four minutes her freshman year and did not play her sophomore year. As a junior, she played 22 minutes across nine games, bringing her career total as a Wildcat to 26 minutes. Simply put, Mutombo has not had the minutes needed to show her skillset, and that will almost certainly continue to be the case under Berube.
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Sandra Moreno
Sophomore | forward | 6-foot-1 | Barcelona, Spain
Moreno was one of McKeown's three first-year recruits in his final year of coaching. The other two were López and Angelina Hodgens, who has since transferred to Sacred Heart University. None of the three were given any significant amount of time on the court under McKeown.
The 6-foot-1 sophomore notched 21 minutes over nine games last season, grabbing five rebounds and notching one assist. With the introduction of a Berube-induced transfer class, it feels unlikely that Moreno gets a call for significant minutes any time soon.
