Syracuse women’s basketball: team captains named for 2024-25 season

FLJ has chosen her captains for the upcoming year.

The Syracuse Orange women’s basketball team locked in its team captains for the upcoming 2024-25 season.

Head coach Felisha Legette-Jack tapped four players to serve as team captains for the new-look Orange — Georgia Woolley (guard), Kyra Wood (forward), Sophie Burrows (guard) and Angelica Velez (guard). Three of the four team captains selected played for the Orange this past year.

All four will look to be the main leaders for a Syracuse program looking to keep the momentum going as Legette-Jack enters her third year with the team.

Georgia Woolley will be playing her third year with the Orange in 2024-25. She played for Legette-Jack in her freshman year with Legette-Jack for the Buffalo Bulls, then transferred to Syracuse after her coach got the job here in the 315. She has started in 54 of her career 59 games with the Orange and averaged 13.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.9 steals per game in 2023-24.

For the upcoming year, Woolley will look to emerge as the veteran scorer for a team who will no longer have Dyaisha Fair moving forward.

Like Woolley, Kyra Wood joined the Orange in 2022-23 — Legette-Jack’s first year with the program — after playing her freshman year at Temple. Wood mainly played in a smaller role two years ago, but did start in 24 of the Orange’s 32 games last year while showing improvement as a rebounder and defender. She averaged 6.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in 2023-24.

Wood also served as a team captain last year, the only active player to serve as team captain more than once.

Sophie Burrows will be looking to build off her improved performance last year, capped off with a breakout performance versus UConn in the 2024 NCAA Tournament (18 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 6/10 from three).

Burrows only started four games last year, but carved out a solid role off FLJ’s bench (18.6 minutes per game) and slowed signs of becoming a complimentary scorer and credible outside shooter. There will certainly be an opportunity for her to shoulder more scoring responsibility in 2024-25. Burrows averaged 4.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game last year.

Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Lastly, there’s newcomer Angelica Velez — the only non-returning player named a team captain for this coming season.

Velez will likely be one of the x-factor players for 2024-25. She was ranked as the No. 44 best prospect from the class of 2023, according to ESPN’s 2023 HoopGurlz recruiting rankings. However, she averaged under five minutes per game in 23 contests with the LSU Tigers last season.

Syracuse saw two key guards leave over the offseason — Fair (entered the WNBA Draft) and backup guard Kennedi Perkins (transfer portal). After transferring to the Orange, Velez will look to eat up some of those minutes and get more of an opportunity to shine compared to her time with LSU.

Confirming the team captains means we are one step closer to basketball season. This Tuesday night, Syracuse will officially lock in its full ACC schedule for 2024-25 to pair with an already finalized non-conference slate.