Apr. 14—Two of Rochester’s top all-time women’s basketball players will have new basketball homes next season.
Lilly Meister, a 2022 John Marshall graduate, and Ava Miller (2024 Mayo grad), announced their signings Monday with the University of Kansas and the University of North Dakota, respectively.
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The 6-foot-3 Meister spent the past three years with Indiana University, where she was a frequent starter this past season and averaged 6.7 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. Indiana’s season ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 64-53 loss to No. 2 ranked South Carolina.
Miller just concluded her freshman year at Division I program USC Upstate (South Carolina). The 6-foot-2 center averaged three points and threee rebounds and started more than half the team’s games.
Meister was a top-100 player nationally and a two-time All-State player when Indiana landed her as a senior at JM.
She had some big moments this season, including three games of 20 points and another of 18.
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But it was how she was being utilized that drew Meister to look for a better fit via the transfer portal. Indiana coach Teri Moren had her mostly playing near the basket, with few 3-point shooting opportunities or chances to face the basket or get out and run on fast breaks. Meister was looking to play more the style she was allowed on her John Marshall and AAU teams, where her versatility offensively was taken advantage of.
So, Meister hit the portal, one of six Indiana players to do so this offseason.
In Kansas, she believes she’s found an ideal fit. There, she’s been told she’ll be used as a “stretch four” or a “stretch five,” a power forward or a center who is allowed to also take her game to the perimeter.
“It’s exciting knowing that I’ll be getting a fresh start,” said Meister, who plans to move to Lawrence, Kan., in June. “My versatility is what made me so good in high school, when I could stray away from the basket. Now, I’ll be able to take 3-point shots, stretch the floor and run the floor. Those things that have been cooped up inside of me, I’m ready to release them. The main reason I left Indiana was I felt that my skills were not being utilized. They have a specific way they like to play. I tried it for a few years. But in the end, it didn’t fit me.”
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Meister joins a Jayhawks team that was hit by a slew of injuries this past season and finished 16-14. Kansas was 20-13 in 2023-24 when it reached the NCAA Tournament, losing in the second round.
Though Meister says Indiana was an imperfect fit for her stylistically, she has plenty of great memories from her three seasons there. Among them was playing in front of a pack of rabid fans at iconic Assembly Hall, winning the Big Ten title her freshman year and reaching the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 as a sophomore.
“I will miss how supported women’s basketball was there,” Meister said. “They support it like no other place in the country. The fans there understand the importance of women’s basketball and of showing up. I am so blessed to have gotten that experience.”
Now, Meister is headed to another iconic basketball place — Kansas University and its Allen Fieldhouse.
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That’s where the honor student will spend her final collegiate season.
Meister also took recruiting visits to Creighton University and Arizona State University. She said she also had talks with the University of Minnesota, but preferred to leave the Big Ten Conference.
Ava Miller is hoping to follow in older sister Anna Miller’s footsteps and have the kind of stellar career big sister just completed at Division I Drake University.
Anna averaged 13 points, 10 rebounds and nearly 3 blocked shots per game this past season and twice in her career was named the Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
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The 6-foot-2 Ava, who is one inch shorter than Anna, got her start at Division I USC Upstate (South Carolina) this past season where she averaged three points and three rebounds for the 9-21 Spartans.
Ava believes those numbers will go up considerably at her future home, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Besides that, there’s one thing she’s certain about. It’s that UND will feel more like home. That has everything to do with Grand Forks being 660 miles closer to Rochester than Spartanburg.
Miller comes from a tight-knit family. She can’t wait to have her parents close enough to regularly attend games again. This past season, they were able to get to just a handful of them in South Carolina.
“My family is a big part of my life and my basketball career,” said Miller, who started 18 of USC Upstate’s 30 games. “It’s nice to have my parents at games, to know that I have supporters in the stands. I appreciated my time at USC Upstate, but it was far from home. I just want to get closer to home and get back to playing Midwest basketball.”
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At the University of North Dakota, she’ll not only be closer to Rochester, but will be next to a handful of teammates she’s familiar with. That includes Byron’s Kendra Harvey, a high-scoring guard who will be a freshman next season with the Fighting Hawks. It also includes Finley Ohnstad, a Lakeville South graduate who just completed her redshirt freshman year at Kansas State and like Miller, entered the transfer portal. Those two played against each other both on their high school and AAU teams. Growing up, Miller also received basketball training from Ohnstad’s father, former Faribault and University of Minnesota player Mitch Ohnstad. In addition, Miller is familiar with returning guard Mikayla Aumer, a UND junior who played her high school ball at Cambridge-Isanti.
UND recently lost eight players to the transfer portal, opening a host of spots for the Fighting Hawks.
Miller would seem a nice fit in the middle. A strong 6-2 player with an excellent 3-point shot (made 43% of her 3-pointers at USC Upstate) and powerful inside moves, Miller believes she could play both center and power forward at her new school, which finished 6-10 in the Summit League and 12-19 overall last season. She was used at center by USC Upstate.
Whatever the Fighting Hawks coaches ask of her, Miller said she’ll be willing, able and eager.
“I’ll like playing wherever they put me,” Miller said. “In terms of playing time, I’m not expecting anything going in. I’ll have to earn whatever I get with hard work. They’ll appropriately give playing time to whoever earns it.”
