University of Richmond Athletics
Women's Basketball: WNIT Final Four
04/05/2004 | Women's Basketball
April 5, 2004
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Following the disappointment of the NCAA Tournament Bracket Announcement, the Richmond women's basketball team resolved to make a statement in the WNIT and that they did. Advancing to the semi-finals, the Spiders won a program-best three post-season tournament games before falling to eventual champion Creighton and ended the season with a 23-10 record, the most wins in over a decade.
Richmond opened the 2003-04 season with a 12-3 mark, the best start since the 1990-91 team won 18 games before suffering their fourth loss. The Spiders played an extremely challenging non-conference slate and their strength of schedule ranked as high as fourth in the nation. Richmond faced several Top 25 teams in Florida, Miami (Fla.) and LSU and traveled extensively throughout the county, participating in tournaments at UNLV and LSU.
The Spiders ended with an 11-5 record in conference action, winning their last six regular season games, and claimed a second-place finish in the Atlantic 10 West Division. After enjoying the first-round bye, the Spiders defeated Rhode Island in the quarterfinals but fell to Temple by a basket the following day.
With a final regular season RPI of 43, the Spiders anxiously awaited Selection Sunday, hoping for an at-large bid from the committee. Shortly after the announcement was made, Richmond learned that they would host South Florida in the opening round of the WNIT.
After wins over South Florida, Florida State and Western Michigan, the Spiders found themselves in the tournament semi-finals, one of just 20 teams in the country still competing for a national title, confident that no matter what the outcome, they had made a statement to the basketball community.
