A familiar face, with a different name, will be back in Mackey Arena next season, as Madison Layden-Zay (formerly Layden) will return to Purdue women's basketball for the 2025-26 campaign, the program announced.

Layden-Zay last played for the Boilermakers during the 2023-24 season before stepping away from the game following her fourth season in West Lafayette. The class of 2020 recruit has a year of eligibility remaining, however, thanks to the COVID rule, and will now return to Purdue for a fifth season.

Layden-Zay was productive over her first four seasons with the Boilermakers, where she played in 111 games, including 93 starts. The 6-foot-1 guard/wing averaged 9.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game during that time, while shooting 37% from the field and 35% from three-point range. During her true senior season, she averaged 9.8 points and shot 39% from three-point range, both of which were top three for the Boilermakers in 2023-24.

Purdue has seen five players enter the transfer portal since the end of the season, Sophie Swanson, Jordyn Poole, Amiyah Reynolds, Mila Reynolds and Jayla Smith, but now receive positive news with the first addition to the roster of the off-season.

Layden-Zay is set to join the current core of Rashunda Jones, Kendall Puryear, Lana McCarthy, and her sister, McKenna Layden, as well as incoming freshmen Avery Gordon and Keona Douwstra. That current roster leaves the Boilermakers with eight scholarships still available ahead of next season, which could be filled by transfer portal additions in the coming weeks.

The addition of Layden-Zay now gives Katie Gearlds and the Boilermakers their lone senior on the roster for next year, at least as of the time of this writing, and a veteran presence to guide what will be another new-look roster in West Lafayette.