University of St. Thomas Athletics
Program Overview
- 1 NCAA championship (1991)
- 7 NCAA Final Fours (three from 2012-2019)
- 32 postseason appearances in 33 seasons through 2020
- 27 MIAC championships (18 regular-season)
- 30-win seasons four times in nine years (2012-2020)
- 26 NCAA playoff appearances (55 wins)
- 22 All-America honors since 1980
- 77-game conference win streak ended in Dec. 2019
- 5 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans
- 9 of the last 21 MIAC Player of the Year honors
- 5 of the 13 MIAC Coach of the Year honors
- Kaitlin Langer 2017 National Player of the Year
In fall 2021 St. Thomas becomes the first institution to make a direct move in all sports from NCAA D-III into D-I athletics.
Tommie Women's Basketball is one of 18 sports that will compete in the Summit League. St. Thomas teams will also compete in the Pioneer Football League; the WCHA Women’s Hockey league; and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association for men’s hockey.
Ruth Sinn starts her 17th season as head coach in 2021-22. She has guided the Toms to an average of 25 wins and just four losses over her last 13 full seasons. Sinn is one of the few Division I head coaches in any sport to have worked 20 seasons as a high school coach.
The Tommies also boast an outstanding academic record and are regularly listed in the top-50 nationally.
They play games in the 1,800-seat Schoenecker Arena in the state-of-the-art Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex on campus.
Since its program started in 1977 with the first class of females on campus, St. Thomas has been synonymous with women’s basketball excellence both on the conference and national scene.
An early highlight came in 1991 when the Tommies won the NCAA Division III national championship under then Coach Ted Riverso. That was the first of seven Final Four trips for St. Thomas, which also placed third nationally in 1995, 1996, 2000, 2012, 2017 and 2019.
In fact, St. Thomas is among a select group of NCAA basketball programs (all levels, both genders) to have three different head coaches qualify teams to a Final Four. The Toms also have received more than 20 All-America honors.
St. Thomas posted the best record in Division III women’s hoops during the 1990s. The Purple ranked near the top of D-III again over nine seasons from 2012-2020, with an overall record of 245-30 (.891).
St. Thomas won 19 or more games in 31 of the last 39 full seasons. That includes a 75-35 postseason record. From 1990-92, led by an NCAA champion team, Tommie women's hoops won 40 consecutive games, including the first 27 of 1991-92. The Tommies' all-time NCAA tournament record is 55-26 in 26 appearances since 1984.
St. Thomas played in the Division III postseason in 32 of their last 33 years as a member. The Toms had a 26-10 all-time record in the MIAC postseason playoffs, led by nine championships, after the event began in 2001.
St. Thomas won either the regular-season or playoff title in the MIAC for nine consecutive seasons through 2019. The Toms won the MIAC playoff title as the No. 5 seed in 2009-10, the 2012-13 playoff championship as the No. 2 seed, and took 2014’s championship as the third seed. UST won the conference regular-season championships in 2010-11, 2011-12. The Tommies won both the regular-season and the playoff title five seasons in a row from 2014-19.
The Tommies built a record win streak of 77 against conference opponents before it was halted in December 2019. At the time that was the second longest win streak among all NCAA teams (both genders).
The 2017-18 senior class finished 114-9 for the best four-year record in program history, and the 2018-19 seniors closed their era at 114-10.
St. Thomas won 18 of a possible 39 MIAC regular-season championships in women's hoops, which breaks the record for the most by a conference institution.
The Toms were 211-21 against conference opponents from January 2010-March 2020. Over the span of 39 seasons, St. Thomas posted 33 top-three MIAC finishes.
Former Tommie player Ruth Opatz Sinn was hired as head coach in May 2005. In her 15 seasons as a Division III coach, the Tommies won nine MIAC regular-season championships and nine MIAC playoff championships. They also played in 10 NCAA DIII Tournaments, making it to the Final Four in 2012, 2017 and 2019, where they finished third in the nation each time.
The 2011-12 St. Thomas team won 30 consecutive games, including a 24-0 slate against MIAC opponents, and set a school record for most victories in a season with 31. The 31 victories were the most by any conference basketball team in the last 30 seasons. Maggie Weiers was selected to the Final Four All-Tournament team and Taylor Young made All-America. The 2016-17 team started 31-0 -- another first in MIAC men's or women's history.
Beginning in Fall 2021, Tommie basketball will compete in the Summit League Conference, a midwestern-based Division I conference, following a historic jump from Division III in July 2021.
Top Players
As a first-year starter as a junior in 2017-18, center Hannah Spaulding made the 10-player first-team All-America team. She repeated as All-America and MIAC Player of the Year as a senior in 2018-19 and broke a 26-year-old MIAC record for career field-goal percentage.
Senior Kaitlin Langer was named National Player of the Year in 2016-17 after leading her team to a 57-5 record in her two seasons as a starter.
Tommie Laurie Trow was the 1993 National Player of the Year. Trow is the only basketball player in NCAA history to score in double figures in every game in her career (113 games). During her tenure at St. Thomas, UST won 43 consecutive home games and also had a then-Division III record 40-game win streak.
From January 1995-Febuary 2005, St. Thomas went 193-43 against MIAC opponents and 115-22 in home games.
The 1999-2000 Tommies became the first MIAC basketball team to finish 22-0. The squad went on to post a 28-2 overall mark and took third place in the national tournament. Molly Hayden was selected a Kodak Division III All-American.
The 2000-01 Tommies came back to repeat as conference champions and reached the NCAA round of 16. In 2001-02, St. Thomas shared the MIAC championship and finished 21-5.
Guard Missy Pederson was selected as a Kodak All-American in 2000-01 and 2001-02. Pederson broke a 15-year-old record NCAA Division III record for career free-throw percentage as she converted 300-of-358 foul shots in her four seasons for a .8379 clip. Pederson became the first MIAC women's player to surpass 1,500 points, 300 assists and 300 steals.
In a 12-year span from 1991-2002, St. Thomas had 10 Kodak All-Americans and had the conference Player of the Year nine times.
