2004-05 Women's Basketball Team of Distinction (2025) - Richmond Athletics Hall of Fame

2004-05 Women's Basketball Team of Distinction

Induction:
2025

It was a defining moment for Richmond women’s basketball. When the 2004-05 team saw the name “Richmond” on the TV screen during ESPN’s NCAA Selection Show broadcast, history had been written. It marked the first-ever at-large berth for the Spiders, earned by virtue of a second-consecutive 23-win campaign.

Coach Joanne Boyle’s squad opened the season 9-0 and 14-1, with wins over state rival Virginia, SEC foe Florida and future NCAA Tournament teams Liberty and Dartmouth. Prior to their first loss – by six points to nationally-ranked DePaul – the Spiders had been one of just five remaining unbeaten teams in the country. In mid-January, the Spiders earned the program’s first-ever national ranking at number 25 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll.

Senior captain and future Richmond Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Kate Flavin led the way. She paced the Spiders in scoring (16.8) and rebounding (8.8), and was named to the Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team and All-Defensive Team, as well as Richmond Times-Dispatch State Player of the Year. Junior captain Saona Chapman led the team in assists (4.4 per game) and was second in scoring (11.6), while earning A-10 All Conference Second Team and All-Academic honors.

Flavin finished her career with 1770 points. The ‘04-05 team featured three other players who would go on to be 1,000-point scorers – Christina Campion (1261), Johanna McKnight (1106) and Chapman (1100).

A late-season injury to Flavin left the Spiders shorthanded, falling to Florida State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But the lofty accomplishments of the 2004-05 team – at large NCAA berth, national ranking, one of 64 teams to play for a national championship – are achievements that would stand alone for the next two decades of Spider women’s basketball.