The UMSL women’s basketball team secured an at-large bid to the 2026 NCAA Division II Tournament. The Tritons are seeded seventh in the Midwest Region and will play No. 2 seed Ferris State on Friday in Allendale, Michigan. (Photos by Patrick Clark/Athlete’s Eye Photography)

Emotions can shift rapidly for college basketball players in March as members of the University of Missouri–St. Louis women’s basketball team experienced firsthand on Sunday.

They watched helplessly Sunday afternoon as Maryville players jumped up and down and hugged each other near midcourt at the Mark Twain Athletic Center after denying the 25th-ranked Tritons their first-ever Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament title by handing them an 83-75 double-overtime loss in the championship game.

But much of the disappointment from that defeat faded Sunday night as UMSL players gathered with Head Coach Katie Vaughn and Assistant Coach Emily Samuelson to watch the NCAA Division II Tournament Selection Show and saw their name appear on the screen as the No. 7 seed in the Midwest Region. The Tritons will take on No. 2 Ferris State on Friday as the regional gets underway at Grand Valley State’s Fieldhouse Arena in Allendale, Michigan.

“Being able to say that we made it to the national tournament – that is something that I’ve been wanting since my freshman year, when we didn’t even make it to the conference tournament,” senior guard Morgan Ramthun said. “That really means something. It’s special, and I think this team really knows that.”

Senior guard Morgan Ramthun dribbled out the clock in Saturday’s GLVC Tournament semifinal victory over Lewis. The win gave the Tritons a school-record 24th victory this season. They will look to add to that total when they make their fourth-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

UMSL will be making only the fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in program history and its first since 2022, the year before Ramthun – the longest-tenured member of the current rotation – arrived.

The Tritons endured back-to-back losing seasons in 2023 and 2024, and though they took a significant step forward by going 19-9 last season, no one could’ve predicted what’s transpired over the past five months. UMSL (24-5) has set a school record for victories and claimed the first regular-season conference title in program history.

Vaughn had a good feeling about her team early last fall when she first watched it start to jell together with returners such as Ramthun, Mara Rieder and Anna Costa Riera and high-impact freshmen Jayden Kuper, Jaeda Wilson and Lexi Hanna.

“Sometimes those early practices drag on,” Vaughn said. “You’re going six days a week, but there was never a day that I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to go to practice today.’ Some kids you have to pull along, and they just suck energy out of you, but we do not have one of those on this team. Every day, you just come in, and they are just buzzing around. They’re not clicky. They’ve been a joy to coach.”

That core group of players bought into Vaughn’s focus on the defensive end of the floor right away, holding six of their first eight opponents to 53 points or less as they started the year 7-1. There hasn’t been much letup since then. The Tritons had a nine-game winning streak in December and January in which they only surrendered more than 60 points twice – one of them in overtime. Opponents have only averaged 56.8 points against UMSL this year.

Junior forward Mara Rieder has been a force throughout the season for the UMSL women’s basketball team. She averaged a league-high 20 points and also grabbed 9.8 rebounds per game while earning Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year honors.

The offense has been catching up over the course of the season, with Rieder playing a leading role. The junior forward has more than doubled her scoring output from a year ago and emerged as the Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year, averaging a league-high 20 points along with 9.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. She has also posted 15 double-doubles.

“I still don’t think she’s hit her ceiling as far as what she’s capable of doing,” said Vaughn, who was chosen the GLVC’s Coach the Year. “This taste is great, and I hope she wants to keep building on it, which I do think she will.”

Rieder had at least 22 points and nine rebounds in all three of UMSL’s GLVC Tournament games. The Tritons beat Upper Iowa 66-56 on Thursday and Lewis 66-59 on Saturday before the loss to Maryville on Sunday.

Against the Saints, Rieder scored 10 of her 24 points in the fourth quarter as the Tritons completed a comeback from a 38-25 halftime deficit. She fought through double-teams and hit turnaround jump shots. She also made a savvy drop pass to a cutting Ramthun for a layup that put UMSL ahead 45-44 with 8:44 remaining – the team’s first lead since it was 19-18 in the opening quarter.

Kuper and Ramthun have led a strong supporting cast. The former led all GLVC freshmen in scoring (14.1 ppg) this season while being named the conference’s Freshman of the Year. She had a game-high 25 points on Sunday, including nine of the team’s combined 18 points in the two overtime periods.

Freshman Jayden Kuper has made an instant impact for the Tritons, averaging 14.1 points and earning GLVC Freshman of the Year honors. She scored a game-high 25 points in Sunday’s GLVC Tournament final loss to Maryville.

Ramthun, meanwhile, was a first-team All-GLVC performer, averaging 13.6 points and 9.1 rebounds, though she struggled against the Saints, finishing with seven points on 2-for-9 shooting.

Sunday’s game featured 11 ties and 14 lead changes, and it was inevitable there would be a few plays that might have swung the outcome.

One came at the end of overtime, when UMSL took over possession with the score tied with 13.5 seconds remaining. Content to play for the final shot, the Tritons let much of that time tick away before getting the ball to Kuper in the paint. But she briefly juggled the ball while swarmed by Maryville defenders and never did get a field-goal attempt before time expired.

Kuper also got free around defender Claire Lueken for a layup attempt with UMSL trailing 74-73 with 2:01 left in the second overtime, but the shot was too strong and rattled off the rim.

The Tritons were still down by one and needing a defensive stop as the clock ticked toward 40 seconds remaining. Maryville worked the ball to Liz Behan in the low post, and Rieder got caught leaving her feet too soon to try to block a shot. Behan scored through contact and made a free throw to finish the three-point play, extending the Saints lead to four. They held on to clinch the GLVC’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

UMSL must now regroup and get ready to play 16th-ranked Ferris State, which is coming off its own loss in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament final against reigning national champion Grand Valley State. The Bulldogs are making their third consecutive NCAA appearance.

“It’s not our end,” Rieder said. “We’re just playing for our seniors, so we can keep them on the court with us. I’ll definitely miss Morgan and Anna and playing with them and having (injured forward) Alex (Wolff) on the bench. We’re going to try to let it last as long as we can.”