CEDAR CITY, Utah - With a highly anticipated postseason drawing nearer, the 2025-2026 Southern Utah women's basketball team inches closer to rejoining the Big Sky Conference and reestablishing a legacy of success that started with a regular-season champion 2013-2014 team.
The current campaign is quite reminiscent of that storied season from over a decade ago. A month ago, junior Ava Uhrich surpassed 1,000 points. 11 years ago, senior Carli Moreland did the same. As of Sunday, the Thunderbirds locked up a historic 13-1 record on their home court. Back then, they secured an outstanding 12-1 season at home.
Most importantly, though, both teams had a team-first approach and a huge chip on their shoulder. While the 2025-2026 team can't see the future, they can revisit the past as they look for inspiration in their upcoming move to the Big Sky.
A Defining Season
After a rocky entrance year into the Big Sky, the 2013-2014 team found themselves prepared for a revenge tour that would go down as one of the greatest seasons in program history. Led by junior guard and future Southern Utah Hall-of-Famer Hailey Ferry (Mandelko), the Thunderbirds tipped off the preseason with a stunning 90-86 road win over a talented Boise State team.
"That first game against Boise was when they were pretty good," Ferry explained. "It was at Boise, it was a close game, and it set the tone of how we wanted our season to go. We didn't want to be afraid of who we were playing."
For the rest of the season, win or lose, the Thunderbirds didn't shy away from tough competition. They headed into conference play with a 6-2 record.
However, tackling the Big Sky was no easy task. Despite opening with a motivating win over a Northern Colorado team that had bounced them from the tournament a year prior, Southern Utah dropped three of its first six Big Sky games — each by a margin of five or fewer points.
"Basketball has a long season. You're playing for a lot of months, and the biggest part is that you want to be playing your best when it gets to the end of February and March," Ferry stated. "I think we all knew that. The games we were losing were by a possession or two. We were there, but we just had to figure out how to put it all together."
That's exactly what the Southern Utah team did. They piled on win after win, taking only two losses in the entirety of February: to the Montana Grizzlies and the Eastern Washington Eagles.
The Thunderbirds closed out their regular season on a blistering five-game winning streak that included two tide-turning victories. In a 69-49 rematch win over the conference-leading Grizzlies at home, SUU ensured that if they won out, they would have a share of the Big Sky title.
Then, with a sweep-securing 63-48 victory over North Dakota, Southern Utah officially tied Montana for the title of Big Sky Regular Season Champions.
"My freshman year, we had a lot of freshmen and sophomores. It took a lot of building together and going through the growing pains," Ferry said. "By the time it was my junior year, we had a lot of seniors. We were out there to show the full picture of what we had built."
The conference tournament started with a shootout win against Sacramento State, but Southern Utah's postseason hopes ended in a 73-69 loss to the Grizzlies, despite Ferry recording a 34-point game that still stands at seventh all-time in the SUU record book.
Even though the team missed its initial postseason goal, the Thunderbirds were chosen for the Women's National Invitation Tournament for the first time in program history. SUU defeated Colorado State 71-56 before falling to Colorado in the second round of the tournament.
"Just being invited to a postseason gave us an opportunity to continue to play and be together," Ferry shared. "I think every woman and man who plays in college sports understands this. You never have the same team, and it's never the same relationships. Being able to continue on for a couple of weeks and make some history for our school was something we all enjoyed."
A Stacked Roster
By the close of the year, the 2013-2014 team had earned more than just a Big Sky Regular Season Championship. As a team and — for many of them — as individuals, they'd inked themselves all over the Southern Utah record books.
Among their team accomplishments, the Thunderbirds set a record with 35 made free throws at Boise State, brought down a program-high 74 boards against Arizona Christian, and logged SUU's most accurate field-goal shooting game at 66.7% versus Sacramento State.
"The fun thing was that everyone's game fit together. Nobody really had the same talents, so we were able to complement each other so well," Ferry explained. "It was fun to have everyone come in and not only know their role, but want to excel at it."
This incredible team chemistry led to significant individual accolades. Ferry scored 467 points in that campaign and made 71 three-pointers, a mark that still stands at second in the SUU record book today. Her phenomenal season rightfully earned Big Sky recognition, including an all-conference first team bid and a spot on the All-Big Sky Tournament Team.
Sophomore forward Lori Parkinson, who led the team in rebounds with 241 and closed her career as one of the most accurate Thunderbirds of all time, received all-conference second team honors. Meanwhile, senior Andrea Jones earned the title of Top Reserve and finished her Southern Utah career with the best free-throw percentage in program history and 331 assists, which sits at sixth all-time today.
As icing on the cake, the 2013-2014 season pushed two players, Ferry and senior center Carli Moreland, into a very prestigious 1,000-point club.
Yet, to the players, none of it meant more than finding success as a team and cementing themselves as a serious contender in the Big Sky Conference.
"We all wanted to play for each other and the name on the front of the jersey," Ferry shared. "I think that's what made that team so special."
A Promising Future
The Southern Utah team today aims to reenter the Big Sky and be just as successful as its predecessors from nearly a decade ago.
Even though so much has changed about the collegiate sports landscape, from the transfer portal to NIL, Ferry believes that the Thunderbirds can quickly adapt to the Big Sky through the same fundamentals that her team relied on.
"You're always going to have people that will tell you that you're not good enough," Ferry explained. "They told us the Summit League wasn't as good, and [the Big Sky] was going to be tougher. It's about buckling down, staying together, and not worrying about what anyone on the outside says."
In addition to a second opportunity to prove themselves in the Big Sky, Southern Utah will also have a chance to rekindle old rivalries and forge new ones.
"It's all new competition for this team," Ferry said. "Being able to build those rivalries back will be so fun. They'll get to play Weber State again and keep Utah Tech in there. They'll get to start building up new rivalries of their own."
Following their final Western Athletic Conference postseason this March, the new-era Thunderbirds will officially move to the Big Sky Conference for the 2026-2027 season.
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