Principia Women’s Basketball made history last Saturday as they won the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) championship for the first in program history, going from non-existent to conference champions in four seasons.
During the 2020-2021 season the Lady Panthers didn’t play any games because of low numbers and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Head Coach Ramiro Dominguez who was hired in June 2020. Since then, the program’s record and accomplishments have trended upward as they made the conference tournament all four of the seasons Dominguez has coached. The team’s success accumulated in a championship and berth into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division Three national championship tournament, better known as March Madness.
Principia came into the conference tournament as the fourth seed, meaning they would have home court advantage for the first round. They won that first matchup against Greenville University (GU) 71-67, just their second win against them in 16 years.
They then traveled to Fulton, Missouri to matchup against first seeded Westminster and three-time SLIAC Player of the Year Annette Ramirez. The Panthers were able to hold Ramirez to just 15 points and won the game by an 18-point margin despite being down at halftime. With that win they secured their chance at a championship against three-time defending champs and second seeded Webster.
The championship was a back and forth affair, according to Dominguez, but thanks to big games from Triniti Matthews and Hannah Myers, they pulled out the narrow two point victory on a last second layup from Myers.
Dominguez gave the credit to his players.
“We’re doing a really good job of bringing in the right women,” he said, “it’s not anything I’ve done, it’s the incredible women who have said yes to coming to Prin.” He went on to praise the hours of work his athletes put into their craft.
Dominguez’s players praise him back for the culture he helped create on the team. Junior forward Triniti Matthews transferred to Principia from Webster University, the very team the Panthers beat in the conference championship, and credits his coaching style for her move. “He really focuses on family and the community aspect and everyone being together.”
Matthews recognized the progress the Panthers made during Coach Dominguez’s tenure, going from a one-win team in the 2021-2022 season to what they are now. “It was a big deal for me to come from a school that already won a lot and then come to a program that hadn’t been as good. Proving my old coach wrong—it means a lot.”
Coach Jordan Olufson has been the head coach at Webster since 2008 and has won five conference championships to go along with five opportunities in the national championship tournament.
Matthews was recognized as a star of the tournament, receiving the Tournament Most Valuable Player award after putting up 20 points and 10 rebounds in the championship game. She said that the performance did mean a little bit extra to her since it was against her old team. “It felt incredible to show him, (Olufson) ya, I won too and got tournament MVP.”
The team on the whole had no shortage of accolades this season. Junior Taylor Brown reached the 1000-point milestone this season becoming just the eleventh player in program history to eclipse the mark. She sits at 10th in career scoring now. She paired that with a selection to the SLIAC All-Conference 2nd Team. All-conference awards are voted on by the SLIAC coaches.
Brown’s teammates, Arianna Williams and Lamiya Terrell, both Juniors, earned All Defensive Honors, and the team’s lone senior Carolina Rojas was recognized as part of the All-Sportsmanship team. Williams also broke into the program’s record books this season snagging her 500th career rebound.
Matthews identified sophomore Genesis Santiago as an underappreciated member of the team. Santiago hit a two point shot from just inside the three point arc with 13 seconds left to tie the championship game. “I would say it was probably one of the number one plays in the game,” said Matthews. She went on to clarify that Junior Hannah Myers’s buzzer beating game winner was the biggest play.
Sophomore Natalea Clark, who missed much of the season due to injury, attributes the team coming together towards the end of the season as a big part of their playoff success. “The team dynamic towards the end of the year, you could tell everyone became more unified,” she said, “everyone played for the team and not themselves… it was less about me and more about us”
The Panthers will be playing their first game of the national tournament on Friday against University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in Whitewater, Wisconsin. It is a 64 team, single elimination tournament. If they win on Friday they will play again on Saturday against an undetermined opponent.
