RIO GRANDE VALLEY – At the start of the 2025-26 season, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) women's basketball head coach Lane Lord gifted his team with two necklace charms. 
 
One was a gold replica of UTRGV's V logo with the star in the center. The other was a silver 20. 
 
At the time, no team in program history had ever reached 20 wins. Three teams got close, finishing at 19 wins in three consecutive seasons from 2014-17. The most wins in a season under Lord was 18. 
 
Lord firmly believed this team would be the first to hit the 20-win threshold, and he needed the 14 young women in the locker room to believe it, too. Enter: the 20 charm. 
 
The Vaqueros wore their charms every day as a reminder of what they were chasing. The charm was talked about in press conferences and interviews throughout the season as the win total grew. 
 
The belief, culture, and talent combined to result in the winningest season in program history. The Vaqueros went 21-14 and returned to the postseason for the first time in seven years. They set or tied 19 single-game and single-season program records along the way. UTRGV was the only team in the Southland Conference (SLC) to have two All-Conference First Team selections in senior forward Charlotte O'Keefe and junior guard Jalayah Ingram. O'Keefe also made the All-Defensive Team for the second consecutive year and Ingram was named the SLC Newcomer of the Year. 
 
Though success was bountiful by the end of the run, the season was not without adversity. 
 
UTRGV started strong with a 3-1 mark after going to Texas State and beating the Bobcats for the first time in 15 years. But then the Vaqueros faced three Power 4 opponents in 21 days, including eventual Final Four-bound Texas and Elite Eight-bound TCU, which were ranked #2 and #10, respectively, when playing UTRGV. Next came the first significant injury of O'Keefe's four-year career, keeping the star and lone senior on the squad sidelined for six games. The Vaqueros dropped four in a row and went 2-5 in December. They turned the calendar to 2026 and their focus fully to conference contests with a 5-8 record. 
 
They could have used the tough schedule and injury issues into an excuse. Instead, the Vaqueros used the rough patch as a learning opportunity. Lord and his staff shuffled the starting five around quite a bit and saw connections form. The youngsters grew up quick as they were forced into extra minutes against top teams. Freshmen forwards Chazlyn Dettor and Elise Horne stepped up, and redshirt junior guard Erin Maguire, playing her first season at UTRGV, found her groove. 
 
Dettor recorded back-to-back games with 17 points at #2 TCU and at Lamar in her first conference game. Dettor tabbed her first career double-double in UTRGV's win over eventual SLC Tournament champion Stephen F. Austin, scoring 16 points with 12 rebounds. Horne had arguably the best performance of her rookie season in that same game at SFA, scoring 10 points in 17 minutes with six rebounds and three steals. Maguire dropped 10+ points in four consecutive games against Houston, TCU, SFA and North Dakota State – a top mid-major program – and scored in the double digits in five of seven contests to close the calendar year. 
 
The individual growth and improving team chemistry UTRGV managed to foster during its 5-8 start to the season helped the squad turn the tides once returned to full form. The Vaqueros went 8-1 in January, starting the new year winning four in a row. They dropped one home game to McNeese, which went on to win the SLC championship, before going on another win streak of seven games – tying the program record for consecutive wins. 
 
The Vaqueros won a program-record 16 conference games as they went 16-6 against SLC opponents en route to a #4 seed and a first-round bye in the conference tournament. A key part of the strong conference showing was incredible play on the road. UTRGV went 11-5 in road games, setting a record for wins away from the UTRGV Fieldhouse and for consecutive road victories (7). UTRGV was one of 26 teams in Div. I women's basketball to win 11 or more road contests this season. 
 
Along with wins at Texas State and SFA, other significant wins off the home court included a 76-67 win over #5 Northwestern State in the quarterfinals of the SLC Tournament, securing the historic 20^th victory of the season. The locker room celebration was electric as the Vaqueros jumped and cheering and flashed their "20" charms to the cameras.  
 
UTRGV was selected to compete in the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) and traveled to Austin Peay for the first round. Once again, adversity hit – the Vaqueros were battling the flu as the postseason kicked off. Three of the five starters were ill and far under 100% when they took the court on March 19. But the team's resilience and the connection between Ingram and Dettor helped UTRGV roll to a 71-59 victory, adding to the historic season with the program's first postseason road win in wire-to-wire fashion. 
 
The Vaqueros ended the season with their highest NET rank in Lord's tenure. They set program records for points in a season (2,315), field goals (817) and free throws (476) made, free throw percentage (74.1%), rebounds (1,471), rebounds per game (42.0) and assists (519). They were not only the clear rebounding leader in the SLC, but a top 15 team in the nation in RPG and defensive RPG (29.9). 
 
O'Keefe added to her legacy every time she stepped on the court. She secured 1,000 career rebounds with a tremendous 22 point, 19 rebound performance at Houston Christian, where she also had a perfect shooting day, going 7-for-7 from the field, 3-for-3 from 3-point range, and 2-for-2 from the charity stripe. She surpassed 1,000 career points at McNeese, scoring 18 with 18 rebounds and a career-high tying seven assists. She is the only player in program history to reach both 1,000 career points and rebounds. 
 
She was the No. 2 rebounder in the country for the second consecutive year, totaling 399 rebounds – one shy of her single-season program record of 400. She was, for the second consecutive year, the only player in the Southland to average a double-double, producing 13.8 RPG and 12.4 PPG. O'Keefe recorded 17 double-doubles, bringing her career total to 39, which is fourth-most in SLC history.  
 
For all of her individual milestones throughout the year, O'Keefe firmly declared the 20-win season as the most special achievement of her illustrious career. She went through a lot during her time at UTRGV. In her first two seasons combined, UTRGV won just 18 contests. Two years ago, she was on a team that won only six games.
 
The two-time captain, two-time All-Conference and All-Defensive Team honoree, 2024-25 UTRGV Female Student-Athlete of the Year and reigning UTRGV Female Legacy Award Winner was the undeniable anchor of the most successful season Vaqueros women's basketball has enjoyed. O'Keefe will go down as one of the most influential and productive players to ever come through the program, leaving with four program records and 118 games played. She set the tone with her work ethic and dedication to UTRGV, and her commitment to and belief in Coach Lord was rewarded with a historic season to close out her career. 
 
Lord may not have known exactly what was in store for the 2025-26 team when he handed out those 20 charms. But he knew the Vaqueros were on the verge of a special year. By putting on those charms, the team bought in and turned a goal into reality and created a new standard for a rising program. 

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