It’s evident a team has depth when one of its typical leading scorers puts up a goose egg in the box score and it’s still able to pull out a seven-point victory.
Such was the case for the University of Richmond women’s basketball team in its victorious 79-72 season opener away against Temple University on Nov. 4.
Junior forward Maggie Doogan, the Spiders’ 2024 First Team Atlantic 10 All-Conference selection, whose 15.4 points per game average last season was a team-high, finished with zero points in UR’s first action of the 2024-25 campaign.
Nevertheless, the Spiders prevailed, thanks to efforts from senior guard Katie Hill and graduate forward Anna Camden. Perhaps most crucial, though, was junior guard Rachel Ullstrom, who finished with a career-high 32 points, as well as six rebounds and five steals.
Ullstrom was first off the bench last season for the Spiders, and to say she shined in her role would be an understatement. Her efforts last year amidst a season in which UR won the A-10 Championship, as well as made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2005, were enough to garner A-10 Sixth Woman of the Year honors.
Against Temple, however, in the first start of her career with the Spiders, Ullstrom led the charge and stepped up when regular offensive stalwarts like Doogan and graduate forward Addie Budnik suffered less productive nights.
“[Ullstrom] works her tail off,” UR Head Coach Aaron Roussell said in a postgame interview. “So she had an incredible summer, she’s healthy. We have a lot of really, really good players, and today it was kind of [Ullstrom’s] turn.”
The Spiders got off to a 6-0 start over the Owls thanks to Hill’s two early 3-pointers. What ensued was an 11-0 Owls run that gave Temple the nod on the scoreboard in the first quarter.
UR eventually gained back the lead with a 3-pointer from Camden to make the score 17-15 in favor of the Spiders with 2:34 left in the quarter.
The second quarter was where the Spiders found their stride, ultimately showing flashes of play that lived up to the expectations placed on them in the conference preseason rankings where they were projected to finish first.
With 6:19 to go in the half, UR had increased its lead to 17 points after finishing the first quarter ahead by only five points. By halftime, the Spiders were still in the driver’s seat, leading 43-29 over a Temple team projected to finish eighth in the 13-team American Athletic Conference.
The second half proved to be where the Spiders found trouble, as a 14-point lead to finish out the first half turned into just an eight-point lead heading into the final 10 minutes of play. The Owls finished the quarter on a 6-0 run, providing them with momentum heading into the fourth quarter.
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With 3:30 remaining in the game, Temple had overcome its deficit and went ahead 67-66. Even with some back-and-forth and another one-point Owls lead with just over a minute and a half to play, though, the Spiders found a way to close things out following an 8-0 run en route to the victory.
It was 25 turnovers that allowed the Owls to get back in the game, but Ullstrom’s 32 points and UR’s 21 bench points compared to Temple’s 10 ultimately gave the Spiders a boost.
“It’s the first game, right?” Roussell said. “We said that we wanted to challenge our kids. You’re coming into an environment like this against an elite champion, on the road with Temple, a very, very well-coached team. We gotta be happy with the win just getting out of here, to be honest.”
The last time the Spiders took the floor was against Duke University in the Round of 64 in the 2024 NCAA Tournament where UR ultimately suffered a 72-61 loss.
With Budnik making the decision to return, some continuity in the lineup with Doogan, Ullstrom and Hill, as well as some key pieces off the bench with Camden, first-year guard Alicia Newell, junior forward Sam Dewey and graduate guard Alyssa Jimenez, UR will be in good shape this season, potentially putting them in contention to make another run at the big dance.
Contact sports editor Jimmy James at jimmy.james@richmond.edu.
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