NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR - RICHMOND VS NEBRASKA

March 17, 2026

Maggie Doogan

Rachel Ullstrom

Cameron Indoor Stadium

Richmond Spiders

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome into this 2026 NCAA Women's March Madness pregame press conference. We have student-athletes Maggie Doogan, along with Rachel Ullstrom. With that, the floor is open to questions.

Q. Rachel, I was wondering from your perspective, this program has now gotten at-large bids in the NCAA Tournament back-to-back years. What's that say about what Coach Roussell has done here and what you all have done here as players?

RACHEL ULLSTROM: Yeah, it's huge. I think coming here our freshman year, we didn't really have that opportunity. I think three years we kind of built that through, you know, going to practice and understanding what this means to our program and just kind of building off of those games and keep building, and it worked out for us.

Q. Maggie, for you, third straight year with Rachel right by your side as well going to an NCAA Tournament. The past 48 hours have kind of been a little crazy for you guys. Take me through the process of Selection Sunday, getting the logistics, and then driving down here.

MAGGIE DOOGAN: Yeah, I think kind of looking back last year, we kind of had a little bit of a better idea of whether we were going to get an at-large bid or not. This year was a little bit more up in the air, so we were kind of on the edge of our seat during Selection Sunday. I know I was super nervous. I know Ally and Rachel were also super nervous.

Just being able to hear our names, and we had a couple of fans there too, so just having that kind of community sense and just everybody being excited for us was awesome. I got a lot of texts from alumni and just other student fans who have supported us throughout the year of just congratulating us and wishing us the best of luck.

It's super great. It's awesome for the program. Yeah, just a little bit of a relief now that we get one more college game, so...

Q. As you've kind of watched a little bit of film on Nebraska I assume, is there a team in the A-10 that you can compare their style of play to or maybe a nonconference opponent that's a little bit similar to them?

MAGGIE DOOGAN: Honestly, I think they're kind of similar to us in a sense. I would say a little bit of maybe Rhode Island in the sense that they push the ball in transition. They do a little bit of four-out, one-in kind of offense.

Yeah, their 5 player will shoot the ball when she's open, and so will ours. They set a little bit more ball screens than we do, but overall I think their offense is kind of similar to ours in reference to the A-10.

Q. For either or both of you, what was kind of the process of flushing out George Mason and then how you've gone about preparing for a different opponent, not a team you know from the Atlantic 10?

RACHEL ULLSTROM: Obviously it wasn't a great experience losing, but kind of just understanding that we still had opportunity to keep playing and understanding that it's important that we still walk into practice and kind of know what this could mean for us if we did get the at-large bid, which we did, and kind of going to practice knowing that and just keep our head down and keep moving, I think it helped. It worked out for us.

MAGGIE DOOGAN: Half of our team hasn't been to March Madness before, and they don't really understand or they didn't really understand before the magnitude and the excitement around it.

Now that we're here and even after Selection Sunday -- like yesterday we had maybe all 12 practice players come because they were so excited for us. Just that was awesome, and just the excitement and honor it is to play at this time in March is huge. I think we understand that now. We're just ready to lay it all out there.

Q. Kind of piggybacking off of that response, what have you guys told the young girls who are here as freshmen or the ones that have come here for the first time, like Tierra?

MAGGIE DOOGAN: Tierra gave me the biggest hug after Selection Sunday. She was super excited.

I feel like we haven't really talked to the freshmen yet. Obviously we'll do that later tonight during film or whatever. Even tomorrow before the game at shoot-around. It's an unbelievable opportunity. Not everybody -- almost nobody gets to experience this. A very select few teams gets to go to March Madness.

We're super fortunate to be able to be here for the third year in a row, but you don't always get that opportunity. So we're just going to tell them to take advantage of it. Don't leave my regrets. Go out there. It could very well be your last game, and if you are lucky enough, you'll get one more, but you just got to leave it all out there, no regrets.

RACHEL ULLSTROM: I would say the same thing. Just embrace it. It's a good opportunity, good experience. You can make good memories out of this too, so just knowing that.

Q. You guys played here three years ago in a regular season game.

RACHEL ULLSTROM: Two.

Q. In a regular season game. I know you all were so excited to go to the West Coast last year and go to L.A. What about playing in a storied facility like this one?

RACHEL ULLSTROM: I would just say, I mean, coming back it's a full-circle moment for some of us and just being able to play back here. Like you said, it's a lot of history involved in this place, and hopefully get another win tomorrow and build off of that, so...

MAGGIE DOOGAN: I mean, kind of the same thing. We kind of have a little bit of experience playing here. Yeah, it's an unbelievable facility. It's not L.A., so there's not too much tourism stuff to do, but I love Duke. I've been a Duke fan my whole life, so it's really cool to be here.

THE MODERATOR: There are things to do in Durham.

MAGGIE DOOGAN: Maybe not like L.A. (laughing).

THE MODERATOR: Touche.

Q. I was just kind of wondering, based on what you did last year by beating Georgia Tech in the first round and what you have done in your nonconference the past couple of years, do you all come into this NCAA Tournament now, your third in a row, with a little bit of different level of confidence?

RACHEL ULLSTROM: I think, yeah. Again, last year we had a very successful run. I think that only builds your confidence. We know we belong here, and we can keep doing that like we did last year. I think that kind of builds our confidence as well, yeah.

MAGGIE DOOGAN: Yeah, I would say the same. It's just a little bit more of a familiarity with it being the third time. Even last year with the win, it's such an awesome feeling that you just -- our whole year this year was, like, we want to get back to that, we want to get that feeling again.

We obviously didn't get the feeling in the A-10s, but we have one more opportunity. It's something that I really want. It's something that my team really wants. So we're just going to go out and play with confidence and act like we belong here, because we do.