Washington State University women’s basketball will take on their regional rivals Gonzaga University. The weekend bout will be the first meeting between the two schools of the season at Beasley Coliseum Saturday Jan. 31 at 7 p.m.
The Cougs and Zags have met a total of 19 times since their first match back in 1999. In the 2000’s the rivalry between the two schools started to fizzle out and they did not face each other for almost an entire decade. Picking the rivalry back up in 2010 they met again in Honolulu Hawaii. Since then the two east side schools have met almost every season since.
Gonzaga is set to join the Pac-12 on July 1, 2026 and will be part of the 2026-27 season. The Zags join the Cougs and Beavs in the new Pac-12 along with Boise State, Fresno state, Utah state San Diego State and Texas State.
In the West Coast Conference, the Zags are sitting at No. 3 with a conference record of 6-2 and overall record of (14-7). Notable Players for the Zags according to the Gonzaga athletics, is Lauren Whittaker a redshirt freshman and forward currently sitting at a total of 423 points average score of 20.1 and a total of 217 rebounds averaging 10.3.
The Zags have been on the road since Jan. 22 going against current WCC power house No.1 Oregon State where they lost 92-87 in overtime. Before their match against the Cougs they will go against San Francisco.
The Cougars currently sit at No.10 in the WWC with a record of 3-6 and an overall record of 4-18.The Cougs have also been on the road just recently falling short to University of the Pacific 65-53. They will take on Santa Clara University on 6 p.m. Jan. 29 at before returning back to Beasley where they will face off with the Zags.
According to the WSU athletic page, junior guard Eleonora Villa is at a high of 1,314 career points making her the 13th in program history for career points. She sits 19 points away from taking 12th in program history. Villa for the season currently stands at 387 points averaging 17.6 points and a total of 53 rebounds averaging 2.4.
Junior center Alex Covill, is posting a season total of 97 points averaging 10.8 points. She has a season total of 39 rebounds averaging 4.3. Covill was also named Academic Services Student Athlete of the month.
