The Troy Trojans women's basketball program is the intercollegiate women's basketball of Troy University. The program is classified in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

's Division I and the team competes in the Sun Belt Conference. The head coach of the Trojans is Chanda Rigby, who is in her third season at Troy. During her first five seasons as head coach at Troy, the Trojans have made three NCAA Tournament appearances, one WBI Tournament appearance, and have won two Sun Belt Tournament titles and one National Championship. The team plays home games in Trojan Arena, which was built in 2012 and replaced the old arena known as Sartain Hall.

History

Joyce Sorrell era

Troy's first season was in 1975 under then head coach Joyce Sorrell. Before Sorrell started the basketball program, Troy had no women's sports. Sorrell is considered the "mother of women's athletics" at Troy University. Sorrell maintained consistent winning records for her women's basketball teams. In 1978, she helped guide Troy to an upset win over

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

, 80–63. The next season (1978-1979), Sorrell scored an upset win over in-state opponent Auburn by a score of 76–70, and a few games later defeated

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, 85–80. The Lady Trojans would finish that season with a 21–9 record. For the 1979–1980 season, Sorrell once again led her team to more big wins, defeating

and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

in consecutive days. The Lady Trojans fell short in the state AIAW Tournament, but finished with a 19–11 record. Sorrell's 1980-81 team won an Alabama

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...

State Championship and posted an 18-16 overall record on the season. Sorrell coached Troy's first ever All-American in Denise Monroe during this time, from 1977 to 1981. Joyce Sorrell led the women's basketball program through seven years (1975–82) as a member of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) before the

began sponsoring championships in women's athletics in 1982. She then helped the program transfer from NCAA Division II to Division I in 1993-94 before retiring from coaching in 1995. She also coached nine 1,000-point scorers and 17 all-conference selections while coaching the Trojans through four different conferences, plus two seasons as an NCAA Division II independent.

Jerry Hester era

Upon taking over the head coaching position on an interim basis after Joyce Sorrell retired, Jerry Hester was hired as the full-time head coach. In 1997, his second season as head coach, he guided the Lady Trojans to their first Division I conference championship, winning the

Mid-Continent Conference The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...

tournament and receiving their first-ever berth to the NCAA Tournament. Troy lost that year in the First Round of the tournament to #12 Virginia, finishing with a 23-7 overall record. Hester earned the Mid-Con's Coach of the Year honor that same year. The following season (1997-1998), Hester started out the year with a 72–69 win at home against

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...

, but wasn't able to sustain the momentum throughout the season, finishing with just a 13-14 overall record. After struggling to find the same success he had in his first couple of seasons as head coach, Hester resigned from his position in 2002.

Michael Murphy era

In 2002, Michael Murphy was hired as the third women's basketball head coach at Troy. Murphy had previously been an assistant for the

men's and women's basketball teams between 1997 and 2002. Murphy steadily improved the Trojans as the school transitioned from the

Atlantic Sun Conference The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Div ...

to the Sun Belt Conference beginning in the 2005–06 season. Murphy was never able to take Troy back to the success they had seen under Joyce Sorrell though, as he never garnered any championships and had only two winning seasons. In Murphy's last two seasons as head coach, Troy had accumulated a record of 7–51 in two seasons, which led Troy to fire Murphy in 2012. Murphy finished with a 110-179 overall record.

Chanda Rigby era

Chanda Rigby Chanda Rigby (born April 16, 1968) is an American basketball coach. Since 2012, she has been the head coach of the Troy Trojans women's basketball The Troy Trojans women's basketball program is the intercollegiate women's basketball of Troy ...

was hired in 2002 after previously being the long-time head coach for

Pensacola State College Pensacola State College (PSC), formerly Pensacola Junior College, is a public college in Pensacola, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System. The main campus, located in Pensacola, was opened in 1948 and was the first institute of hig ...

, where she won a state championship and took them to the

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

Final Four in each of her last two seasons. She led the Pirates to a combined 64–6 record over her last two seasons at the school. Upon Rigby coming to Troy, she immediately converted Troy to a fast-pace philosophy basketball team, which is what led to her success at the NJCAA level. Troy quickly became known for its high-scoring offense and up-tempo playing style over the next couple of years. In the 2014–2015 season, in just her third season at the helm, Rigby led Troy to their first 20-win season in 18 years, finishing with a 20–11 record and a berth into the WBI Tournament. Troy would wind up losing in the First Round of the tournament to

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, 68–83. For the next season, Rigby led Troy to their second-straight 20-win season, finishing the 2015–16 season with a 20–13 record and a Sun Belt Conference tournament championship. This marked the first time Troy had consecutive seasons with 20 wins or more. The Trojans would receive a berth into the NCAA tournament as a #15-seed, only to lose to #2

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

, 31–73. Rigby followed up her successes with yet another 20-win season in 2016–17, this time finishing with a 22–11 record. Troy would garner consecutive wins against Villanova and Loyola-Chicago in the San Juan Shootout during the first half of the season. Troy finished 3rd-place in the Sun Belt standings, garnering a #3-seed for the Sun Belt Tournament. After defeating

Arkansas State Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

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, and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

in consecutive games, Troy won their second-straight Sun Belt Conference tournament championship. Troy received their second berth in as many years to the NCAA tournament, losing in the First Round #2

. Troy would make their way back into the postseason once again during the 2018–2019 season, making their first-ever appearance in the WNIT. Troy finished the season with a 22-9 overall record, which included a 71–54 win over Ole Miss during the season. In Rigby's best season at Troy to date, the 2019-2020 Trojans cruised through Sun Belt play with a 16-2 conference record and was crowned regular season Sun Belt Champions, earning the #1-seed in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. On March 12, 2020 the Sun Belt Conference cancelled their conference tournament due to the

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pandemic, leading to Troy being awarded the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament due to them being the regular season champion. Shortly thereafter on the same day, the NCAA cancelled the NCAA Tournament, and all other conferences cancelled their tournaments as well. The Trojans ultimately finished the season with a 25-4 overall record, the best in school history. Following the historic 2019-2020 season, Troy was able to once again capture the Sun Belt title during the 2020-2021 season, this time by winning the Sun Belt Conference tournament. Troy would defeat

in the finals of the tournament by a score of 73-65. After receiving the #15 seed to the NCAA Tournament, the team would face the #2-seed

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

in the first round, losing in the last seconds on what was a controversial missed call by the officials. The final score would be 84-80, in favor of the Aggies. In Troy's 2021-2022 season, the Trojans scored an upset over

by a score of 73-66.

Coaches

*''Records updated as of 3/28/2022.''

All-Americans

* Ashley Beverly-Kelley – CollegeSportsMadness.com Mid-Major All-American Third Team (2015) * Donette McNair - National Strength and Conditioning Association (NCSA) All-American (2011) * Denise Monroe –

All-American Second Team (1981)

Award Winners/Finalists

* World Exposure Assistant Coach of the Year :Neil Harrow – 2020 *

Nancy Lieberman Award The Nancy Lieberman Award, named for Basketball Hall of Fame legend Nancy Lieberman, was given annually by the Rotary Club of Detroit in the Award's first 14 years to the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball. Sue Bi ...

:Joanna Harden – 2014 (Finalist) * NSCA All-American Athlete of the Year Award :Donette McNair – 2011

Postseason Results

NCAA tournament results

WNIT Tournament Results

WBI Tournament results

AIAW Regional Tournament Results

Championships/Titles

*1981 – Alabama

State Champions *1994 -

East Coast Conference The East Coast Conference (ECC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of C ...

Regular Season Champions *1997 –

Tournament Champions *2016 – Sun Belt Conference Tournament Champions *2017 – Sun Belt Conference Tournament Champions *2020 – Sun Belt Conference Regular Season Champions *2021 – Sun Belt Conference East Division Champions *2021 – Sun Belt Conference Tournament Champions *2022 – Sun Belt Conference Regular Season Champions