2025-2026 is the 50th season of Mustang Women’s Basketball, and the program will celebrate its tradition of excellence throughout the upcoming campaign. The team is excited to invite Mustang Nation to come alongside us as we pay tribute to this incredible 50-season journey.
Stay tuned for opportunities to participate in the celebration of this 50th season, and join the conversation on social media by using #SMUWBB50 to share past memories and create new ones.
Our history begins in 1976 as SMU played its first official game against Eastfield College under head coach Suzanne Troutman. SMU defeated Eastfield 83-16, marking the first win in program history. The Mustangs went 10-9 that season, highlighted by defeating No.19 Baylor 60-47 at home and making the second round of the TAIAW playoffs.
Welton Brown began his 14-year career at SMU and took over as head coach for the 1977-78 season and continued to grow the program. The Mustangs were led by Carol Blauvelt (1978-82) and Lisa Davis (1979-83) in the early years of the program as Blauvelt racked up 1,329 points (12th all-time) and Daivs totaled 1,156 points (19th all-time).
The 80’s started off strong as SMU won 18 games during the 1981-82 season, the most under Brown. That season, future SMU Hall of Famer and Head Coach Rhona Rompola arrived on Campus for her senior season. Rompala shined as a Mustang, averaging 21.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, leading the team in both. Rompola's point average stood as the school record for over 30 years and remains only one of two Mustangs to ever average over 20 points in a season. Her 163 free throws made during the season still stand as a program record to this day.
SMU found a new conference home as the Southwest Conference began sponsoring women’s basketball during the 1985-86 season. Shasta Smothers-Johnson (1983-87) took the touch from Rompala and totaled 1,426 points (8th all-time) and 933 rebounds (4th all-time) during her career.
Rhonda Rompola took over the program as head coach to begin the 1991-92 season and ushered in a new era for the Mustangs. That season, she led SMU to its first SWC playoff victory, defeating Texas A&M 85-77 in the first round and would be a catalyst for what was to come. Suzanne McAnally, 1989-92 finished her career with a program record 489 assists, helping SMU achieve the feat.
Capitalizing off the momentum from the previous season SMU recorded its first 20-win season as the team finished with a record of 20-10 and was the 1993 National Women’s Invitational Tournament runner-up after falling in the championship game to Arkansas State.
During the 1993-94 season, the program took another step forward and made its first NCAA tournament appearance in school history. It marked the first of three straight tournament appearances for the Mustangs. At the 1995 NCAA Tournament SMU defeated Southern Miss 96-95 in overtime for its first NCAA tournament Victory.
SMU closed out the 90s with two more NCAA Appearances. Arguably, SMU’s greatest post-season run occurred in 1999 as the Mustangs knocked off No. 4-ranked Colorado State to win the WAC Tournament, the program's first conference tournament championship, then defeated No. 25-ranked Toledo in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. SMU ended the season winning eight of its last nine games.
The Mustangs made five NCAA Tournament appearances and won 20 or more games four times in the 90’s. The era featured some of the Mustangs' most prolific offensive attacks as this era produced nine 1,000-point scorers, highlighted by SMU Hall of Famer Karlin Kennedy (1996-00), who totaled 1,785 points over her career, second all-time in school history. She was a three-time All-WAC first team selection and was the 2000 WAC Player of the Year.
Other notable players from the era include Kerri Delany, 1992-96 (1,503 pts- 4th all-time), Shanell Thomas, 1989-93 (1,480 pts – 5th all-time), Kim Brandl, 1994-97 (1,458 pts – 6th all-time), Claudia Brassard, 1995-99 (1,358 pts – 9th all-time) and Jennifer McLaughlin, 1993-96 (1,353 pts -10th all time).
The 2000s started off strong with another NCAA Tournament Appearance for the Mustangs as WAC player of the year Kennedy, led SMU to a 22-win season and were crowned WAC regular season champions, the first regular season title in school history.
SMU would return to the postseason in 2005 as it made the NIT tournament led by SMU Hall of Famer Janelle Dodds. The following season SMU found a new conference home in C-USA.
Dodds continued to develop and put together one of the best careers by a Mustang in school history. During the 2007-08 season, her final season as a Mustang, Dodds not only became SMU’s all-time leading scorer with 1,861 points, averaging over 14 points per game for four seasons, but also led SMU to a record of 24-9, the most wins in a single season in school history and earned AP All-American honors in the process.
SMU won the 2008 C-USA tournament, its second conference tournament championship in school history and made its most recent NCAA tournament appearance. The Mustangs closed out the decade with back-to-back 20-win seasons and WNIT appearances. SMU won the regular season C-USA title in 2009 during the stretch.
Other notable players during the era include Dodds' running mate, Brittay Gilliam, 2007-09 (1,455 pts 7th all-time), Delisha Wills 2006-11 (1,280 pts – 14th all-time) Andrea Cossey, 2000-04 (1,206 pts- 16th all-time), Jillian Samuels, 2006-10 (1,188- 17th all-time).
The core group of Wills, Akil Simpson, Christine Elliott and Alisha Filmore, all of who scored over 1,000 points as Mustangs, led the program in the early years of the decade, but leading the group back to the postseason was Keena Mays who transferred to SMU in 2012.
Even though she only played two seasons at SMU, Mays scored 1,115 points, 21st all-time in school history. During the 2012-13 season, Mays was named C-USA conference player of the year and help lead SMU to a WNIT appearance.
The following season, SMU joined the American Athletic Conference and Mays took her scoring to another level, becoming only the second player in school history to average over 20 points a game as she scored a program record 691 points. SMU found themselves back in the WNIT and hosted the first round.
Head Coach Rhonda Rompola’s legendary career came to an end after the 2015-16 season.
A new era of women’s basketball began under Travis Mays, who led SMU back to the postseason, advancing to the third round of the WNIT. Alicia Froling's emergence was a major catalyst for the Mustangs, averaging a career-high 14.3 points per game during the 2016-17 season. She ended her career with 1,523 points (3rd all-time) and program record 1,154 rebounds. She is the only Mustang to ever record over 1,000 rebounds in a career.
After five years of no postseason action, SMU returned to the WNIT under head coach Toyelle Wilson during the 2021-22 season, as Kayal White led the Mustangs and became the program's most recent 1,000-point scorer, finishing her career with 1,068 points.
The Mustangs followed that season up with another trip to the WNIT in 2023, SMU’s most recent postseason appearance.
On July 1, 2024, SMU returned to a power conference and joined the ACC. In the new conference, Jessica Peterson dominated the low block, breaking the SMU single-season rebounding record with 360 rebounds.
The SMU women’s basketball program is now under the leadership of Head Coach Adia Barnes as the team enters its second season in the ACC. SMU overhauled its entire roster, bringing in 14 new players for the start of the 2025-26 season.
Barnes comes to the Hilltop from Arizona, where, over her nine seasons at the helm, she built Arizona Women's Basketball into a fixture on the national stage of college basketball while developing her reputation as one of the top coaches in the sport. Under Barnes, the program ascended to new heights in record-breaking fashion in all aspects - reaching the national championship game, signing elite recruiting classes and cementing deep connections with the local community. She led UA to six straight post-season appearances and five straight 20-win seasons, highlighted by an impressive run to the NCAA Championship Game in 2021, where the Wildcats narrowly lost to Stanford, 54-53.
