Thanks to the Oregon State University women’s basketball team, the banners in Gill Coliseum can be updated. For the second year in a row, the Beavers made it to the March Madness tournament.

In the previous season, OSU made a run all the way to the Elite Eight in the National Collegiate Athletics Association tournament and by the end of the season was ranked eighth in the nation by the Associated Press. OSU had some roadblocks this year, though.

Following the collapse of the Pac-12 conference in 2024 and the end of the season, one player after another left the team. Eight Beavers in total entered the transfer portal and joined other teams, including the top five scorers.

By the start of the 2024-2025 season, only five players from the previous year remained: guards Kennedie Shuler and AJ Marotte, and forwards Kelsey Rees, Sela Heide and Susana Yepes.

“When you choose to stay, you’re hopeful of (winning),” said head c oach Scott Rueck. “Then the journey, once the reality of how hard this journey was going to be hit, then they probably doubted — I’m sure they did — they each doubted whether it was possible, maybe whether it was worth it at times, if we’re being honest.” 

No longer a part of the power conference that was the Pac-12, OSU basketball joined the West Coast Conference, a mid-major conference, as an affiliate member.

“And then they just stuck with it, and everybody rose … just seeing these five all step it up into new roles, take it up a notch, has been inspiring for everyone and demonstrates how much it means,” Rueck said.

Having to reconstruct the roster and sign new players, the Beavers were off to a slow start, with only one win out of their first six games. After having to play the majority of the start of the season in tournaments, being away from Gill Coliseum didn’t help. The Beavers also struggled in January, going on a four-game loss streak towards the end of the month. 

However, OSU completely turned it around in February, and they won seven of the nine remaining regular season games. Coming back from the early slump, OSU ended the regular season with 16 wins and held fourth place in the WCC.

Winning the WCC tournament in Las Vegas was the one and only route for any WCC team to make it to the big dance. The Beavers earned a bye and went on to win three games in three days in the WCC tournament to secure their spot in the NCAA tournament. 

OSU fought through the University of San Francisco, the No. 1 seeded Gonzaga University, and Portland University, who had won the last two conference tournaments back-to-back. 

Despite losing a conference, joining another and rebuilding the team, the Beavers fought the entire season to claim the coveted automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. 

“I think everything we’ve experienced and faced has just been unexpected, but I’m just really proud of how we’ve handled it and responded to everything,” Marotte said after winning the WCC tournament. “I’m just really proud of this group, we’ve handled a lot of unexpected things, but we’ve handled it well.”

Marotte wasn’t the only member of the team to feel vindicated in making it to the NCAA tournament. 

Throughout the year, the Beavers mentioned how they felt counted out because of all of the adversity they faced in losing teammates and a conference. After making it to March Madness, several Beavs shared how they thought they proved their abilities.

“We just stayed so tight and so together, and that’s what got us so far,” Shuler said on Selection Sunday, when March Madness opponents were announced. “I mean if nobody else believed, we believed, and that’s really all that matters.”

Guard Tiara Bolden, a senior who had never played in the NCAA tournament before, celebrated with the team as well.

“My mind is literally blown away,” Bolden said on Selection Sunday. “I’m ecstatic. I’m ecstatic just to be here, just to play in March Madness, and honestly just gives me another reason to fight harder because now it’s go big or go home, we have to give everything that we have.”

Under Rueck, Oregon State has now made it to March Madness nine times, including two runs to the Elite Eight and an exit in the Final Four in the 2015-2016 season. In spite of the hardship, Rueck was able to lead the team and squeeze out a run to the tournament once more.

The Beavers faced off against the University of North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament as a 14-seed, where they lost 70-49. Despite the loss, the OSU team felt proud to make it to March Madness after the year they’d had.

“This year, I think we showed the whole world, who perhaps stopped believing, that hey, Oregon State’s still here,” Rees said following the exit against North Carolina. “Doesn’t matter what changes in the world, what changes in the conference, what changes in the team, but there’s always that same product and those same people.”

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