Rice Women’s Basketball has turned in 18 consecutive victories, running through American Conference play with a tenacious joy that can’t be stopped.
On the last day Rice women’s basketball tasted defeat, fans across Houston were cutting into their Thanksgiving turkeys. On that afternoon, the Owls dropped a one-point game to Central Florida in Puerto Rico. They haven’t lost since, thrilling supporters with more than two months and counting of consecutive wins.
Their energy on the court is infectious. No situation feels too big, nor does any deficit too insurmountable. They meet every moment with poise, focus, and a relentless passion. They win. So far, that recipe has worked to great success.
“This team plays with a ton of joy. It’s really fun to watch,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said, reflecting on the Owls’ journey to this point. “That’s why I keep urging fans to come and watch this group because you cannot [watch this group and not] love it.”
“You’re going to be smiling as well because they are fighting so hard for each other. They’re fighting for the name on the front of their jersey. They’re celebrating one another. They’re lifting one another up. It just makes them so special. That’s why our togetherness and toughness is showcased all the time because of the joy, because of the love that they have for each other.”
It’s hard not to greet the morning with a grin when you’ve rattled off 18 straight wins. Even with healthy preseason expectations, not even the most ardent supporters could have envisioned a stretch like this.
And yet, this isn’t some out-of-nowhere Cinderella; Rice picked up a first-place vote in the preseason coaches poll. Still, there’s a meaningful gap between outperforming projections and going 84 calendar days — and counting — without a single loss.
What makes this surge feel different is that it doesn’t quite fit the usual blueprint. There’s something distinct about this emerging juggernaut, something that resists easy comparison to the archetypes we’ve come to expect.
The easiest comparison is the 2018-2019 Rice Women’s Basketball team, which set the standard that this current season’s squad is chasing. That team dropped its first two games, then proceeded to set the program’s current all-time best winning streak, posting 21 consecutive victories, going undefeated in conference play en route to an NCAA Tournament berth.
That team had Erica Ogwumike, a WNBA draft selection, and Nancy Mulkey, the all-time Rice leader in blocks, who was listed on the official roster at 6-foot-9. Nicole Iadamarco, then the program-record leader in three-pointers made, was on the wing in support.
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By the most conservative estimates, Ogwumike was a star and Mulkey was, at the very least, a matchup nightmare no other team could effectively counteract. In hindsight, that team running the table doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
Which brings us back to the present day, where the 2025-2026 Rice Basketball team is vying to match, and possibly surpass, that historic run. And they’re doing it without any WNBA draft picks or, truthfully, the kind of superstars one typically ascribes to these kinds of record-setting runs.
No Rice women’s basketball player currently ranks inside the Top 10 in the American Conference in scoring despite the team averaging 70.8 points per game, third best in the league. Instead, the top three Owls rank 13th, 14th and 15th. Hailey Adams is second in the conference in rebounds and leads the league in blocks. Victoria Flores has a conference-best 86.3 percent free-throw percentage.
And remember Iadamarco from that historic 2018-2019 squad? Current Owl Dominique Ennis broke her three-point record more than a month ago and keeps upping the total.
Adams, Flores and Ennis, alongside Aniah Alexis and Shelby Hayes make up one of the most effective starting five in the country. And coach Edmonds relies on them tremendously. All but Hayes average 30+ minutes per game; she comes in right at 28, still a large compliment of minutes by any estimation.
So how does a team built like this, with only two other players seeing more than eight minutes per game of action, turn in 18 wins in a row? The answer might not be extra practice time or perfect execution, but in Edmonds’ declaration: togetherness, another word for culture, which so many teams tout but few personify quite as this one does.
“We love each other. And that does so much for us on the court. I don’t know if there’s another team that loves each other as much as we love each other,” Adams said. “We’re a true family. And I think that’ led to a lot of our success.”
That care was on display this past week when the Owls took down preseason conference title favorite South Florida, who threatened to rally in the final minutes. With every foul call that went against the Owls, an unfavorable bounce, the energy remained high and the smiles beamed across the court.
If one didn’t know better, it would be hard to tell any of those five were in the midst of one of the most rigorous basketball games they’ll play all season against a team that ended their season in the conference tournament a year ago. They weren’t phased at all.
When asked about how she deals with the pressure, Flores, who led all scorers with 24 points, offered an interesting counterpoint.
“There is no pressure,” she said. “The way that we hold each other accountable every day, we’re ready for these situations. Even when the games get close, we’re ready because we have each other’s backs. And I think that’s what’s, again, so amazing about this team.”
Whether it’s love, accountability, or something in between, this iteration of Rice women’s basketball has found a formula few have ever been able to duplicate. As things stand right now, they’re a near lock for a triple bye, securing them a spot in the conference tournament semifinals. There, they’d be two wins away from a return to the NCAA Tournament.
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Given the relative weakness of the Owls’ conference in the advanced metrics, winning the tournament is likely a must if the Owls want to go dancing. And make no mistake, that’s the ultimate goal this team is seeking. Nevertheless, they’re still as locked into their next game as they have been all season, leaving the future to take care of itself, as if there’s still more for this 23-3 team to prove. In Edmonds’ eyes, there is.
“We haven’t finished yet. The season’s not over yet. We are not settling,” Edmonds said. “Every opportunity is a game to go 1-0 and we want to do that, over and over and over again until the season is over with. We haven’t accomplished anything yet. We’ve done some great things but we’re not near what we’re going to try and accomplish this year.”
In practice, that means all eyes are on a matchup with East Carolina, the No. 2 seed in the standings and, at this point, the most viable threat to the Owls’ undefeated run.
“We pack up what we just did,” Edmonds explained. “We pack up the intensity. We pack up the mental toughness. We pack up our physical toughness. We pack up our togetherness and we take it to North Carolina.”
They’ll do just that. Smiling all the way.