WSU women’s hoops earns WNIT invite

It’s March, and the Cougars are not quite done playing basketball just yet.

For the fifth straight year, the Washington State women’s basketball team earned a postseason berth. WSU will participate in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

The Cougars are one of 48 teams selected for the 27-year-old tournament. The complete bracket and matchups will be released on Monday.

The first round will begin on Thursday.

“Achieving a spot in a postseason tournament is a yearly goal for our team,” WSU coach Kamie Ethridge said. “I am thrilled that we have earned selection into the Women’s National Invitational Tournament. The WNIT is a long-standing, prestigious tournament."

The WNIT gives four-year Coug Tara Wallack, an All-WCC first-team honoree, at least one more game in the crimson and gray.

Wallack turned in a career-best campaign in 2024-25, with 13 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.

The senior from South Surrey, Canada, led a young team alongside All-WCC honorees Astera Tuhina (7.8 ppg) Eleonora Villa (13.6 ppg) and All-Conference freshmen Dayana Mendes and Charlotte Abraham.

While WSU failed to make waves in its inaugural season in the West Coast Conference, Ethridge’s program kept the longest postseason streak in program history alive with a 20-13 overall season, which included two wins over eventual WCC tournament champion Oregon State.

WSU’s last hope of returning to the big dance faded in the WCC semifinals with a 72-57 loss to the second-seeded Portland Pilots on March 10 in Las Vegas.

The following day, the fifth-seeded Beavers accomplished what the Cougs did in 2023 by running a conference tournament table as a lower seed, beating Portland in the championship and earning an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

WSU qualified for three straight NCAA Tournaments from 2021–23, earning at-large bids in '21 and '22 and securing an automatic bid in 2023 after winning the Pac-12 Tournament Championship in Las Vegas.

After an injury to star senior Charlisse Leger-Walker in 2024, WSU slipped out of the NCAA picture but earned the No. 1 seed in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, where the Cougars advanced to the semifinals following three wins at Beasley Coliseum last March.

"Previous champions and participants of this tournament often spring-board into deep runs in the NCAA Tournament," Ethridge said. "Our young team will benefit from every highly pressurized and competitive ‘win or go home’ tournament-style game we play.”