Washington St. women ranked for the first time

Kamie Ethridge was surprised to hear that Washington State had never been ranked before.

Now the Cougars coach can add that to the team’s list of accomplishments: They entered The Associated Press women’s college basketball poll at No. 25 on Monday.

“I honestly didn’t know we’d never been ranked,” Ethridge said. “I heard a lot about the lows we’ve experienced and talked to our team about the fact we have no banners. We have one NCAA Tournament appearance in the history of the NCAAs. A big part of our recruiting players was about hanging the first banner and being a first. How exciting it is to be on the way up.”

The ranking comes a day after Washington State beat then-No. 7 Arizona 71-69 in overtime on a buzzer-beating layup by freshman Charlisse Leger-Walker. Washington State (7-1) has won five of its first six Pac-12 games for the first time since the 2013-14 season.

“We’re enjoying the process right now,” said Ethridge, who took over the program in 2018. “The team has had a lot of firsts and this is another one of those. We’ll celebrate and acknowledge and enjoy the feeling.”

While Washington State was enjoying its first ranking, Stanford tightened its grip on the No. 1 spot in the poll. The Cardinal received 29 of the 30 first-place votes from a national media panel. They were followed by Louisville, North Carolina State, UConn and South Carolina. The Wolfpack received the other No. 1 vote.

The University of Arkansas slipped from 13th to 17th after losses to Tennessee and Texas A&M.