Fressle hoping Panthers can hit the ground running against Fr Mathews

MIDLANDS Park Portlaoise Panthers player, Jessica Fressle does not anticipate an easy trip to Cork for their opening game of the 2025/26 Women’s Super League against Fr. Mathews next Saturday, but the American power forward insists they have every chance of making it a winning start to the season.

Fressle played a huge part in helping Panthers to a hugely impressive fifth place finish in the 2024/25 regular season, and is hopeful she and her team mates can build on that, especially given that head coach, Peter O’Sullivan has managed to keep virtually the same squad intact.

Indeed, Ireland international Amy Dooley represents their biggest loss over the summer, but O’Sullivan has taken steps to offset that with the signing of Spanish forward/centre, Christy Ojide Boiko.

Fressle has been impressed at how quick the new arrival has settled in at Portlaoise and is hoping she and the team can hit the ground running when they make the trip to Fr. Mathew’s Arena this weekend.

“Playing on the road in Super League is hard regardless of who you’re up against, but we have that bit of confidence going down there to face Fr. Mathews,” said Fressle.

“It's always hard to go down to Cork, and the first game is always going to be a little rough, just getting your feet into the water, but that goes for everybody.

“On any given day, anybody can win any game, but going down to Fr. Matthews definitely could be a good start for us.

“When it comes to me, it doesn’t even matter who’s in front of us, because with every game, we go at it the same, regardless if it’s a team who’s just entered the Super League or if we’re talking about [defending champions] Killester. It’s the same game, the same attitude and the same preparation” she told the *****Laois Nationalist*****.

For Fressle, who is entering her fourth season with Portlaoise, the familiarity that the players have established with each other will be a huge advantage as they enter the new campaign.

“Keeping that consistency is key,” she insisted. “That’s what Peter said at the end of last season. He said he wanted to keep this team together because he thinks that we can do really good things, and that's the reward of being the Americans that they need as well.

“We are pro players at the end of the day and we’ve been here for four years. We didn’t imagine that was going to be the case four years ago, but that's just the reward of trying to build a legacy in one place.

“A lot of times teams are starting with new people and I think, for us, it's just about continuing on from how we ended last season.

“I think we're really happy at what we did over the last two, three months of last season, and to have a girl like Christy come in, fit in seamlessly and who understands our mission and is just ready to get to work, it's really good.

“A lot of teams have to bring in new Americans which is quite common. One person can make or break a team just by the culture you’re creating.

“So I think, knowing the culture that we’ve created here, knowing each other as human beings and as people first, and then on the court second, it just makes everything so much simpler and easy.

“We can hold each other more accountable, knowing that we have the best intentions at heart, and hopefully that helps bring about success.

“I think we're just trying to build every year going forward. Having people like me and (fellow American) Alyssa Velles, who saw where it started four years ago and were there to go through those hard, murky waters, and then to see where we are now, we really just want to keep building and succeeding. I think that's something that this club needs in order to lay that foundation for years to come.

“We have a lot of strong young players coming up. We have some girls coming to practice right now who probably won't make the 12 on a Saturday, but they get to compete on a Monday and Wednesday night with us and see what it really takes, so that, in two or three years’ time, they are on that 12 and even on that first five,” she said.

Portlaoise have enjoyed some positive results in pre-season, although they have come mostly against National League teams.

Still the squad appears to be on a very sound footing as they gear up for their opening night test against a Fr. Mathew’s team to whom they lost by 10 points in this very fixture last season, before winning the return game at home 79-65.

While it is difficult to ascertain the strength of opposition they will face, given the changes that normally occur in the off-season, Fressle believes they will soon have a good understanding of where they’re at this term.

“It's a little hard to know,” she admitted. “We played a lot of National League teams, but I think, once we get into the swing of the season, we'll know quite quickly how it's really going.

“One thing about our team is that we're really good at taking all the positives from everything and building on them.

“I think regardless of the outcome, it's going to be beneficial to us and we're going to take something good out of it, but we do want to get that win,” she stressed.