They now stand alone.
The New York University women's basketball team claimed its 82nd-straight win, the longest in the history of NCAA Division III women's basketball, by defeating Carnegie Mellon University 69-58 on Sunday, February 8, in Pittsburgh, PA.
The top-ranked and two-time defending NCAA Division III Champion Violets broke a tie with fellow University Athletic Asociation (UAA) school Washington University in St. Louis and now own the record outright.
Only NCAA Division I UConn's streaks of 90 and 111 are longer than NYU's. No Division III men's program has ever had a longer streak
"The first thing I think is that I'm happy that talk of the streak will subside a bit now that NYU is on top," said Head Coach
Meg Barber. "We can kind of move forward with what our goals are of winning a UAA Championship and getting back in the NCAA Tournament and trying to make a run."
The only player on the team who has ever suffered a collegiate loss, lone senior
Caroline Peper, opened the game's scoring with consecutive three-pointers. She made two more, accounting for all of NYU's points as the Violets trailed 14-12 after the first quarter.
After Peper connected on her fifth three-pointer early in the second quarter,
Brooke Batchelor became the second Violet to score, making a layup with 7:22 left..
The Tartans took their biggest lead at 21-17, but NYU countered with a 7-0 run. The Violets then fell behind 27-26, but Batchelor hit on a pair of three's and the Violets went into the halftime locker room leading 32-29.
They never trailed again.
Carnegie Mellon's Payton Baney opened the second-half with a layup, but a 6-0 run gave NYU a 38-31 lead.
After another Tartans' bucket, the Violets increased their lead to 49-37 on Batchelor's drive with 1:56 left in the third quarter.
The score remained the same heading into the fourth quarter.
Zahra Alexander's layup opened the final quarter as the Violets' took their biggest lead of the contest
After Carnegie Mellon crept within five, 58-53, Alexander hit a layup and Peper made another three and the Violets led by double-digits the rest of the way.
Peper finished with a game-high 27 points, connecting on 7-of-16 from long distance. Batchelor scored 15 points and added a team-high nine rebounds.
"As the only senior on the team, my goal this year has been to bridge the gap from last year to this year and moving forward," Peper said. "I don't take the NYU Sisterhood lightly, and I want to make sure that the bond is even stronger."
The Violets will look to add to their record winning streak when they face the University of Rochester on Friday, February 13, in Rochester, NY. Tip-off is set for 7:30pm
