As the Denison women's basketball team lifted the Division III national championship trophy Saturday, the moment marked the program's first championship. It also marked a dream destination at the end of an emotional and challenging road.
Coach Mo's fight
In October 2023, her second year as head coach, Maureen "Mo" Hirt began an individual workout with a player when her doctor called. A visit for a cough and fatigue, turned into them doing a chest X-ray. When he called, he told her to sit down. She had a mass the size of a softball in her chest."
As she left her office, she ran into Nan Carney-DeBord, who was Denison's athletics director at the time and the woman who took a chance to hire Hirt as a first-time head coach. Carney-DeBord pulled Hirt into her office. Hirt sobbed.
Throughout the season, Hirt went through chemotherapy treatments, hair loss and exhausting days.
Carney-DeBord checked in on her constantly, asking what Hirt needed and how she could help. Her players stood beside Hirt as she shaved her head because they didn't want her to be alone. When she didn't feel comfortable in wigs, she switched to knit caps, and those on her coaching staff changed their game day outfits to match her.
"I can't even put it into words," Hirt said through tears.
Maureen "Mo" Hirt instructs her team during a timeout in the Division III title game. (Photos by Ryan Hunt / NCAA Photos)
Junior Ada Taute, part of Hirt's first recruiting class at Denison, recalled the uncertainty around the coach's health.
"We were freshmen coming in, and she didn't start for five games. We didn't know what was going to happen or when she would come back. It brought our team culture together. It's something bigger, and we're playing for each other. It really shows throughout our years and what we've been building in our culture."
This culture shows in the way the 18-person team doesn't have designated captains, but different committees.
"They're each other's best friends. This is not four years. It's 40 years and the rest of their lives," Hirt said.
Unranked to unmatched
Denison entered the 2025-26 season unranked after a 15-11 season that ended with a loss in the North Coast Athletic Conference quarterfinals in 2024-25.
To begin Hirt's fourth season, Denison earned 17 straight wins, and the team finished the regular season with only one loss. The Big Red weren't picked to win the conference, but they dominated, leading the NCAC in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and turnover margin. They earned a national ranking for the first time since 2015-16 and won the regular-season conference title.
Yet in the NCAC Tournament semifinals, Denison had its second loss of the season on its home court. The coaching staff looked in the mirror and found ways they had gotten away from the principles and preparations from earlier in the season.
Hirt also leveraged another woman on campus, head Denison soccer coach Sarah Brink, who had played in NCAA tournaments during her college career.
"She talked about how some people at the end of the season are ready for it to be over, but the teams who make it the furthest know a new season is just beginning," Hirt said. "She told them some of the best years they had, they lost in their conference tournament and went on to win the championship."
The 18 women looked at one another. Throughout the season, these teammates made silly "TikTok Tuesday" videos, orchestrated synchronized dances on the bench, ate meals together and spent time off the court hanging out in one another's rooms. Junior Abby Cooch best described the bond they had developed: "We're comfortable in each other's company."
This wouldn't be the end of the road for them.
"For us it's just bigger than basketball. We're playing for each other. We're playing for the team. We're playing for the school. And we were trying to spend as much time together, and that means playing in March, playing as much as we can," Taute said.
The Big Red celebrate their victory against the Scranton Royals during the Division III Women's Basketball Championship.
Denison entered the Division III Women's Basketball Championship prepared and focused. The team beat undefeated Washington and Lee 77-64, Wisconsin-Oshkosh 82-61 and undefeated Scranton 55-41 (after Scranton ended NYU's 91-game win streak in the quarterfinals). In the championship game, Cooch led Denison with 18 points, and Taute added 15. Sophomore Anelly Mad-toingué had 16 rebounds, sealing a team effort that forced Scranton to shoot 20% from the field.
In a fourth-quarter huddle of the championship game, Mad-toingué encapsulated the team's mentality.
"We do not win playing solo basketball. We win with all five of us on the court," she told her teammates. "As coach Hirt says, we win with all 18 of us, and we need to stay composed throughout the rest of the game."
The buzzer sounded, and Denison raised its first national championship trophy.
Cooch still finds herself in a bit of shock.
"In the beginning of the season, it was a bunch of what ifs. Like 'What if we got here? What if we do this? What if we do that?' And we actually made it into reality."
Back on campus, the Denison community has celebrated the team's success, stopping the student-athletes on campus to congratulate them and doing a ceremony with the men's swim team, which won a national championship on the same day. Cooch's economics professor even brought a cake and balloons to class to commemorate the win.
"We're kind of celebrities on campus, and that's when it hit me," Cooch said. "So many people watched. So many people were tuned in not just for the championship game, but for our journey throughout the whole tournament."
For Taute, the win was a testament to a special group of players and coaches.
"We play with so much joy and love that you see on the court, and I think it's one of the strongest reasons why we got the championship," Taute said.
Hirt couldn't agree more.
"These players have stuck with me through it all," Hirt said. "To see them at the top of the mountain, I think it was the best coaching moment I've had because they didn't sign up for this type of adversity.
"It's a testament to our team because when I was going through my hardest times, the best part of my day was always being around them and just getting to coach them, and it's something that I took for granted before the diagnosis. I truly wouldn't have gotten through those moments without them."
Denison held Scranton to 20% shooting from the field in the Division III women's basketball final.
