UMass Women’s Basketball Completes Most Successful Season in Program History

Making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1998, the 12th-seeded UMass women's basketball team fell, 89-78, to No. 5 seed Notre Dame in the First Round at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla. on March 19, closing out the most successful season in the program’s 54-year history.

Graduate student Sam Breen shot 12-for-19 (.632) from the field in putting up 31 points, tying her career best, as the Minutewomen closed out the season with an overall record of 26-7, the most wins in program history.

The 2021-22 Minutewomen became the first team to win an Atlantic 10 Championship, while Breen became the first UMass women’s basketball player to be named A-10 Player of the Year. In his sixth year at the helm of the program, head coach Tory Verdi also picked up his 75th win at UMass and 150th in his career in the A-10 tournament semifinal victory over Saint Josephs on March 5.

The Minutewomen are positioned to continue their success next season, as well, as the team is set to return all five of its starters, including Breen and current senior Destiney Philoxy, who finished the season with 187 assists, second most all-time for a single season and just six shy of the record of 193, set in 1997-98.