PEORIA — The Bradley Braves women’s basketball team continues to rebuild under new head coach Chaia Meier, with a second assistant coach and a new player joining the program recently.
Sydney Moss has been hired as an assistant coach, while Charia Smith has signed to play.
Moss was an assistant in 2025-26 at Stetson University, where the team turned in a 20-12 mark, advanced to the ASUN Championship semifinals and earned a WNIT berth.
She spent two seasons as head coach at Wilmington College. Before that, she was the lead assistant at Thomas More University, where the Saints had back-to-back NAIA national championship game appearances, including a national title in 2022 and a combined 63-6 record.
Moss, a West Virginia native, played at University of Florida, moved to Thomas More, and earned three national Player of the Year honors.
Smith is a 6-foot-1 forward from Marquette. She averaged 3.3 points and 1.7 rebounds on 9.7 minutes per game there in 2025-26.
She played 69 games for Marquette in three seasons.
“We are so excited to welcome ‘Cha Cha’ to Bradley,” Meier said. “Charia comes from an extremely successful Marquette program and is primed to continue that success with us. She is the ultimate competitor, worker and teammate.
“Having coached her the past two years, I know the level of excellence she brings.”
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star senior writer and sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Bradley women’s basketball hires assistant coach, signs former Marquette player
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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