MTSU women’s basketball is off to a rough start, sitting at 4-6 with losses ranging from  Tennessee Tech to the University of Tennessee and Mississippi State University.  

The struggle was expected as the Lady Raiders don’t have a single returning starter from last year’s team for the first time in head coach Rick Insell’s career. This year’s typical starting five consists of three freshmen, a sophomore and transfer senior. 

Insell has had to play multiple true freshmen at the point guard position, switching between Yu Han Lin and Kirston Verhulst up to this point in the season.  

Lin started the first four games of the season as the point guard before the switch to Verhulst. The rest of the guards help as secondary options by committee with Savannah Davis, Alyana Contreras and Carsyn Swaney rotating in.  

“I’m very pleased of the overall girls that I’ve got but we have got to learn to play the game and that’s not what we’re doing,” said Insell after MTSU’s first game against Tennessee State University. “Our point guard right now has got to learn to handle things and that’s the team in general.” 

MTSU has struggled with turnovers so far this season, with the majority of this problem stemming from the guard position. The Lady Raiders are averaging 20.3 per game with a season high of 27 turnovers against Tennessee and Memphis.  

Lin saw her minutes shrink after an eight-turnover performance against Tennessee Tech even though she led the Lady Raiders in points with 17 on Nov. 11.  

After having her role shrink for four games, Lin’s minutes have started to increase again as Insell moved her to the shooting guard role, with a start against Memphis on Dec. 7.  

“I’m not as good as a point guard and I don’t control the ball very well as the primary point guard,” Lin said. “Kirston, she can control both very well and I can do something I’m capable of.”  

Yu Han needs to be the shooting guard so she can operate like she did against Memphis; she was able to get open and score, Insell said. Middle Tennessee doesn’t want to push her into playing point guard, but if needed will have her run the offense.  

Insell has put Verhulst in charge of the offense since moving Lin around in the lineup. Verhulst being bumped to the starting lineup has brought Swaney into the rotation as the backup point guard.  

“I’m pretty set with the point right now with Carson Swaney, and she’s a little bit hurt,” Insell said. “She’ll be back hopefully next week and Kirston, I’m pretty set there.” 

In her first four starts of the season, Verhulst averaged 2.75 turnovers per game with no turnovers against Providence and Mississippi State in the Emerald Coast Classic.  

The game that Verhulst showed the most value was against Tennessee, where the freshman only had three turnovers against a Lady Vols defense that ran a full-court press against Middle Tennessee from start to finish.  

“Our coaches say every day, we don’t have time to be freshman right now,” Verhulst said. “Obviously with our schedule and front of the season, we’re playing a lot of hard teams.” 

The newcomer from De Soto, Kansas has had her offensive game come alive in the past two games against Belmont and Memphis, scoring 11 and seven points respectively. In the previous seven games, Verhulst only scored 20 points, with half coming against the Lady Vols and two scoreless games. 

While the Lady Raider coaching staff will continue to highlight the good aspects of the game, they will keep looking for improvements.  

Against Tennessee, Verhulst played well, knocking down a couple of three pointers but needed to do better at the free throw line and then against Belmont, had six turnovers all on inbound plays, Insell said.  

As Conference USA games near, the importance of winning will step up to another level as the Lady Raiders try to get back to the top of CUSA.  

Middle Tennessee’s next game is against the Auburn Tigers at the Murphy Center on Dec. 20. The Lady Raiders will kick off their CUSA schedule on Jan. 2, 2026, on the road against Kennesaw State University.