Margie Olivares

As far as locker rooms go, the University of the Incarnate Word women’s basketball team’s is pretty typical—shoes, jerseys, equipment and a whiteboard scribbled with various offensive plays and defensive sets.

But inside each individual locker, a sheet of paper with the preseason Southland Conference standings in which the Cardinals were ranked dead last hangs at eye level—a not-so-subtle reminder of how little faith the rest of the league had in them going into the start of the season.

In spite of the low expectations for the Cardinals at the beginning of the year, the team is now just days away from making its first postseason appearance since becoming an NCAA Division I program in 2013-14.

“I’m extremely proud of the effort, and appreciative of the commitment these young ladies have made,” Cardinals coach Jeff Dow said. “And I can’t thank our coaching staff and support staff enough for the long hours and sacrifice they’ve made to put ourselves in this position.”

UIW’s historic season included first-ever wins against SFA and Lamar, two road wins against top-ranked teams in the league, and the best record in the school’s brief Division I history to secure its spot in the 2020 Hercules Tires Southland Conference Tournament in Katy, Texas.

The road to the postseason was not without its speed bumps. UIW opened league play with a loss to Central Arkansas in a surprisingly low-scoring game. But the Cardinals didn’t let the loss hold them back, defeating Nicholls in the following matchup to start the new year.

UIW found itself in a tough spot after falling to Houston Baptist, a team that had been winless in league play up until that point, in January. This was a turning point for the Cardinals.

“We had a big reality check as far as where we were, where we wanted to go and what we had to do to get there, so practice amped up pretty big after that,” senior guard Imani Robinson said. “Coach Dow really got after us in making sure that we were doing the little things that we needed to do to be successful, and that really helped our turnaround.”

The loss sparked something in the Cardinals because just three days later, the team took down the No. 1 team in the SLC, Abilene Christian, on the road. The desire to work hard and win did not end there. UIW was back on the road against another tough opponent, Sam Houston State.

On Feb. 5, the Bearkats were tied with SFA for the lead in the SLC. The Cardinals started the game on a 6-0 run and never conceded the lead in another upset for a team quickly rising through the conference standings. Imani Robinson notched a career-high 31 points to lead the team to victory.

“Although we came out with a big win, we still had little battles that we were fighting,” senior guard Victoria Jackson said. “We didn’t do everything right, but we fought back to get those wins. Even with Imani’s 30 points, we gave up things defensively and offensively, but we came out on top.”

After that game, UIW picked up two more wins over Northwestern State and McNeese, sweeping the season series against both teams. Those wins were separated by losses to Southeastern Louisiana and New Orleans as the Cardinals struggled to find consistency.

The following weekend, the Cardinals hosted a doubleheader against the top team in the league on both the men’s and the women’s sides, Stephen F. Austin. The women’s team opened up a double-digit lead, while holding the Ladyjacks to single digits in the third quarter as the Cardinals stunned SFA and the rest of the Southland Conference once again.

“A lot of the games have been rollercoasters, but it is a fun rollercoaster,” Jackson said. “You take the good and the bad and the ugly, but the good is what we cherish the most, like the win against SFA. We’ve done something that a UIW team has never done before, so it was just a good feeling as a team.”

UIW picked up its second win over Lamar, in dramatic overtime fashion, before falling at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Despite the loss, things turned in the Cardinals’ favor when Central Arkansas fell to ACU, resulting in a clinched spot into the postseason for UIW.

“I’m really excited about the tournament because it is our first year making it. Every game is going to be a battle because anyone can come out on top,” Robinson said.

The Cardinals are still set to close out the season against a tough ACU opponent on Saturday, which is also Senior Day, at 2 p.m. (CT) before they turn their focus on the trip to Katy.

“I feel like we can conquer it all” Jackson said. “We’ve proven throughout the season that we can take down No. 1 seeds and we can compete with them, so I feel like we can do whatever we put our minds to.”