On Thursday, the DePaul women’s basketball team announced that guard Kate Clarke would forgo the remainder of the 2025-26 season due to a hand injury sustained in mid-October. She will officially redshirt what would have been her senior season.

Last year, Clarke was an integral part of a DePaul squad that finished with a 13-19 record, including a 8-10 mark in Big East play. Her 2024 season was shortened to 11 games due to an unrelated lower body injury, but in limited action, the guard made a real impact, averaging 11.9 points and 1.8 assists per game, the third and fourth highest team marks, respectively.

In 2023, Clarke played all 32 games o her sophomore season, her first as a Blue Demon. She joined the team as a transfer after playing her freshman season at the University of Michigan. Averaging 9.8 points per game on the year, the Carmel, Indiana native accumulated 10 or more points 13 times while scoring 20 or more in four of those games. 

She has been one of the team’s better shooters throughout her career. During the 2024-25 season, Clarke was the team’s only player to shoot 36% or better from beyond the arc and 80% or better from the free throw line. 

This season, her shooting has been missed, as the team has converted 27% of their shots from deep, the second-worst mark in the Big East, en route to a 3-14 start. 

There was previous optimism that Clarke would be able to return to the lineup before the season’s end, as head coach Jill M. Pizzotti said that Clarke and the team will “see how it goes after the holidays” following their 90-46 loss to Michigan State at Wintrust Arena on Dec. 14. 

After the team’s 77-67 loss to UIC on Dec. 17, Pizzotti said Clarke “won’t be ready this month.”

Before the season, Clarke’s goal was to help the team in overall shooting after missing much of the previous campaign.

“Last season was a little wonky for me. I only played half the year, so I kind of came in just trying to do what the team needed, which was mainly shooting. That’s my bread and butter,” Clarke said ahead of this season’s start. “Before I hurt my pinky, I was trying to develop my pull-up game, kind of just more so when I’m not open on the catch.”

Clarke was one of seven returning players that the women’s team retained from 2024 to 2025, and if the guard is going to run it back again with the Blue Demons, she will have to wait until next fall for the start of the 2026-27 season.

The team’s next game is a home meeting against Georgetown on Jan. 10 at Wintrust Arena. The game will air on ESPN+.

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