Washington University’s women’s basketball clinched the NCAA Division III national title with a 65-59 win over Hope College in Bloomington, Ill. Players and fans alike shared their feelings and favorite moments with Student Life.

Team reactions

“It’s the best feeling in the world. It’s all kind of a blur right now. I can’t even describe it.”
—junior Kelsey Robb

“Once you are fortunate enough to experience one [championship] and then it’s been about 10 years, you realize how hard, how special, how much you must have a little left, how fortunate you are to have that magical chemistry, and you try so hard…Once you separate yourself, you realize how special this is.”
—head coach Nancy Fahey

Even when I was shooting those last free throws, I was thinking [that] it’s still not over. I just couldn’t believe it until the confetti started falling, and it was real confetti, not the confetti in my dreams…To get to the goals that you set, it feels so good.
—graduate student Jaimie McFarlin

I had to wait ‘til the buzzer sounded before I could actually believe this was happening. I was still in shock when the buzzer went off. We hope we left you with a little piece of the legacy that we hope to establish here.
—senior Janice Evans

It’s kind of hard to describe this feeling that we just had with the team, that no matter what was going to happen, we were going to be able to overcome it and win the game.
—sophomore Claire Schaeperkoetter

Fan reactions

Fans either went on fan buses or drove themselves to support the Lady Bears.

Coming back from down 12 with eight minutes to go in the first game, I’m going to be honest, I thought we were going to lose. The girls held through, and they played a great game.
—senior Tim Machan of the Phi Delta Theta Bomb Squad on his favorite memory

When we won, the confetti was falling on the team…the pictures and all the cheering…Overall, it was an awesome experience.
—freshman Justin Eisenberg on his favorite memory