With just eight seconds left on the game clock, Carnegie Mellon University sank one last layup against NYU on its home court in Pittsburgh, PA — but it didn’t make a difference. The Violets, holding onto an 11-point lead as the last minute in regulation ticked to a close, had cemented the team’s place in the history books with a record-breaking 82nd win in a row. 

“The first thing that I’m happy about is that NYU is on top, and we can move forward with what our goals are — winning a UAA championship and getting back in the NCAA tournament,” head coach Meg Barber said in a postgame press conference, still drenched from the team’s locker room celebration. 

NYU’s last loss came in the 2023 NCAA tournament, as eventual champion Transylvania University knocked the team out of the Elite Eight round. The postseason run was the team’s second go at a championship in as many years, but the Violets once again fell short of the title.

They can’t say the same now, with back-to-back championships under their belt, and hopes for a third in the air. 

“The last game I lost was the game that created all of this,” said senior Caroline Peper, the only member of this year’s team that played in the 2022-23 season. “We were sitting in the locker room thinking about all the seniors that were graduating, being like ‘we should’ve won this for you.’ And now we just play with that same heart every day.”

To compare this squad to the 2023 team — or even 2024-25’s lineup — would be disingenuous. NYU lost three of its starters with the prior graduating class, forcing a new wave of first-years to fill out the ranks. Two of those rookies, guards Aila Kaibara and Olivia Lagao, have earned significant minutes so far this season. The returning sophomores and juniors have stepped up to the challenge of leading a young team as well. 

“We have so many people playing new roles,” Barber said. “We have players that were sitting on the bench for a few years and are now starting and leading us. Yasmene Clark and Zahra Alexander are great examples.” 

Clark, a 6-foot junior forward, is averaging 9.4 rebounds per game, and had a season high of 18 against Carnegie Mellon at home in the Paulson Center just last week. Alexander, a sophomore guard, has been getting significant minutes off the bench, and is a strong asset in the paint. 

All eyes were on the team as the Violets stepped out onto the Tartans’ court.

It was all Peper, who played a staggering 39 minutes, to open the contest. After a series of games where her shots failed to fall, the senior forward’s four made threes accounted for all of NYU’s 12 points in the first quarter. NYU would start the second quarter down by two points, but fought to take the lead back after a tightly contested 10 minutes. The Violets would pick up steam after the break, commanding the third quarter and outscoring the Tartans 17-8. Carnegie Mellon attempted a comeback in the final quarter, but couldn’t match up to NYU, and the Violets closed out win number 82 with a 69-58 score. 

Only eight Violets came out on the floor against Carnegie Mellon, including junior guard Eden Williamson, returning to her hometown for the game. After the team secured the win, she ran straight to her family in the stands. 

“This has been a very full circle experience, especially with the opposing coach being my high school coach,” Williamson said. “For me to just look back and reflect on what’s now been two and a half years makes it so much more special.”

With such a monumental milestone looming, the media attention ramped up accordingly. In the weeks leading up to the meeting with Carnegie Mellon, NYU was featured in The Athletic and ESPN, being put into conversation with women’s basketball legends like the University of Connecticut, which most recently produced the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year, Paige Bueckers. The only school that has NYU’s 82-game streak beat is UConn, twice, with 111 straight wins from 2014-2017 and 90 consecutive from 2008-2010. 

Even at one of the highest moments in program history, the Violets stayed grounded. For most of the players, the all-time D-III record wasn’t on their radar until just before they were due to make the trip to Pittsburgh. 

“We don’t really think about it,” Williamson said. “Every day, whether it’s practice, whether it’s a game, it’s like ‘What can we do to be better?’ The noise started around the start of school, two weeks ago.” 

Still, Barber and the rest of the coaching staff wanted to ensure that the team was ready for the challenge, both mentally and physically. The team’s mental performance coach, Ari Miller, worked with the players beforehand and traveled to Carnegie Mellon with the team. In her pre-game speech, Barber quoted the “Hamilton” song, “It’s Quiet Uptown.”

“There’s a line in it that says, basically, as people, we are enough,” Barber said. “And that would be enough that we get to come back in this locker room no matter what happens in today’s game, this team gets to go back in that locker room and be together.”

While the record may not show it, the winning streak hasn’t come easy for the Violets. Ahead of conference play, NYU hadn’t experienced a win by fewer than 30 points, and was regularly finishing out with games over 100 points. But come January, the tides had turned. NYU faced off against multiple nationally-ranked opponents in the first set of UAA games, and as time went on, the margins got closer and closer. Just one week before the Violets would secure the all-time D-III streak record, the team made it out of a home game against Carnegie Mellon with a mere one-point win. 

The UAA is no stranger to success. The team that held the streak record until Sunday, Washington University in St. Louis, is one of NYU’s conference rivals — a bitter one at that. The Bears secured the previous record, with 81 straight wins, during Barber’s time as a student on NYU’s women’s basketball team in 2001. 

“It’s a gauntlet,” Barber said. “The UAA prepares all the teams in this league for the NCAA tournament. The coaches throw out everything they have, and so do we. It gets us ready for that big stage in the best way possible.”

What this year’s team has proven, more than anything, is the program’s resilience. No win was inevitable, and no outcome was guaranteed. For the Violets, the close games weren’t a challenge, they were a test. 

And the team passed. Week in and week out, this squad has demonstrated their ability to outlast in tight games, and endure as the season stretches out for months on end. With first-years that have entered the program as starters and underclassmen that have stepped up into larger roles, Barber has crafted a team with a bright future ahead. 

The season is far from over. Before the team can even consider the NCAA tournament, they still have to close out the second round of UAA games, against opponents that get tougher each week. An upset is always on the line, and being the No. 1 team in the nation puts a permanent mark on your back, no matter what the record may be. 

But for now, the Violets have a lot to celebrate — the program has built a legacy that no one can undo. 

Contact Kiran Komanduri at [email protected].