Women’s basketball picks up two more wins in Daytona Beach Classic

The University of Richmond women’s basketball team put an exclamation point on its undefeated early-season run at the Daytona Beach Classic, picking up victories against Oakland University on Nov. 29 and Oklahoma State University on Nov. 30 in the post-Thanksgiving showcase. 

These wins solidified UR’s perfect 8-0 month of basketball, as the Spiders did not lose a game in November. They have yet to lose a game this season, in fact. 

The Spiders’ efforts in Daytona Beach started with a commanding 76-49 win over Oakland. 

The score was tight in the early going, and the Golden Grizzlies even held a 13-11 lead heading into the second quarter, but it was over the course of the next 10 minutes that the Spiders put on an offensive clinic to surge ahead 41-19 by halftime. 

It was an onslaught from 3-point range in quarter two, as junior guard Rachel Ullstrom hit seven shots from a distance to give the Spiders separation on the scoreboard. 

Ullstrom was the Spiders’ guiding light off the bench last season. She averaged 11.2 points per game for UR and won the conference’s Sixth Woman of the Year award in a season in which the Spiders won the Atlantic 10 Championship and made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

This season, Ullstrom has seamlessly stepped into a starter role and has been one of the Spiders’ focal points on offense. She certainly showed such against Oakland, finishing with 11 3-pointers and 35 points – three more than her tally in UR’s season opener win over Temple University on Nov. 4. 

[Ullstrom] was outstanding,” UR Head Coach Aaron Roussell said in a postgame press conference. “I know she came into the game and talked about, I think she had missed her last 11 threes, and she hits 11 threes today in one game.” 

Junior forward Maggie Doogan was UR’s other scorer in double figures against Oakland as she finished with 16 points. The Spiders’ junior trio of Doogan, Ullstrom, and forward Sam Dewey accounted for 56 of UR’s 76 points in the effort. 

“I think we shared the ball very well,” Ullstrom said in a postgame press conference. “We found the people that were open, we crashed a lot of offensive boards, got more opportunities for us to score, and I think we just played really good Spider basketball. 

Next up were the Cowgirls of Oklahoma State, who, heading into play, were slated to be the Spiders’ first big test of the season. 

Not only were the Cowgirls also 7-0 coming into game two of the Daytona Beach Classic, but they also served as UR’s first opponent of the season in the highly competitive Big 12 Conference. 

Given the stakes of two perfect records on the line, the game was as hotly contested as one would think. In fact, through one quarter, the Spiders and Cowgirls were all knotted up at 10 points, and at halftime, Oklahoma State held just a one-point lead, 23-22. 

The third quarter was where the Spiders were able to create some separation, however, and establish themselves on the scoreboard. UR outscored Oklahoma State 15-9 over the course of those 10 minutes and with that, held the momentum heading into the final quarter of play.  

The Spiders extended their lead to eight points early in the fourth quarter, but down the stretch, the score grew tighter. With 2:54 to play, the Cowgirls hit a 3-pointer to take the lead, but a 3-pointer from graduate forward Addie Budnik just 17 seconds later gave the Spiders back the advantage on the scoreboard, 49-47. 

Down the stretch, UR eventually won the game at the free-throw line and emerged ahead of its power-conference opponent by four points. 

“I’m just really proud of this particular team,” Roussell said in a postgame press conference. “It’s been a build here for a while. To get rewarded against a Big 12, a power-4 team, that’s undefeated – [Oklahoma State] was not a team that was in a bad spot. They were a very, very good team that had been playing well.” 

Doogan was the Spiders’ leading scorer against the Cowgirls, as she tallied 22 points. Budnik was the only other player in double-figures for UR, finishing with 11 points. 

Whereas UR shot 45.31% against Oakland, the Spiders shot just 37.74% against Oklahoma State. What mattered more against the Cowgirls, however, was the Spiders’ free throw shooting in the late going. 

UR shot 7-for-10 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter, which aided the Spiders en route to their eighth victory of the 2024-25 season. 

“Any time you can get a chance to go 2-0 against the competition that we faced I think is a big-time moment for our kids,” Roussell said. 

UR’s next game is at home against Georgetown University at 6 p.m. on Dec. 4. 

In playing the Hoyas, the Spiders will compete against a familiar face in Siobhan Ryan, who transferred to Georgetown just this season following four years at UR. 

Ryan averaged 7.9 points per game during her time with the Spiders and was another who played an important role in last season’s run that was capped off with an A-10 Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. 

Contact sports editor Jimmy James at jimmy.james@richmond.edu.