The Sacramento State Hornets women’s basketball team’s 2009 season:

• The Hornets finished the regular season with a record of 16-14 overall and 10-6 in the Big Sky Conference.
• Despite entering the conference tournament as the No. 3 seed, Sacramento State won three straight games to claim the championship and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament.
• In the NCAA Tournament, the Hornets were placed in the Berkeley Regional, where they faced the No. 2-seeded Stanford Cardinal in their first game. Despite a valiant effort, the Hornets fell to Stanford 79-47.
• Several Hornets players received individual honors for their performances during the season, including senior guard Kim Sheehy, who was named the Big Sky Conference MVP and a first-team All-Big Sky selection.
• The championship and NCAA Tournament appearance were historic firsts for the Sacramento State women’s basketball program, which had only moved up to Division I in 1991 and had never won a conference title or appeared in the NCAA Tournament before. Head coach Jamie Craighead credited the team’s hard work and perseverance, saying “I’m so proud of this team and what they’ve accomplished. They believed in themselves and each other and never gave up.”