{"id":10777,"date":"2023-04-08T09:59:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T15:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rctc.edu\/echo\/?p=10777"},"modified":"2025-10-16T07:31:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:31:59","slug":"holding-court-undefeated-womens-yellowjackets-guard-their-winning-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/holding-court-undefeated-womens-yellowjackets-guard-their-winning-streak\/","title":{"rendered":"Official ruling: Yellowjackets are national champs!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women\u2019s basketball team ends season with a winning 27-1 record<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First national title since 2009<\/p>\n

By Piper Fuller<\/p>\n

The stakes were high during their final game, but the Yellowjacket women\u2019s basketball team brought the heat! They ended the season with 27 victories and just one loss, collecting their first national title since 2009.<\/p>\n

In addition to being named national champions of the Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division III, four Yellowjackets made the All-Tournament team: Jada James, Ravyn Miles, Myia Ruzek and Olivia Christianson, who also was named the tournament\u2019s Most Outstanding Player.<\/p>\n

Coach Jason Bonde was named Coach of the Tournament.<\/p>\n

The tournament\u2019s high scoring and buzzer-beating excitement was evident throughout the season, said Ruzek, who was named NJCAA Player of the Week earlier this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe compete just as hard [each game],\u201d said Ruzek, who graduates this spring with a business management certificate.\u201cWe don\u2019t play down to any competitor\u2019s level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Player

Ruzek averaged 28 points per game for the Yellowjackets. The Lewiston, Minn., native credits genuine friendships among team members and many years of playing together for their success.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Below, the team in 2023, and at its beginning in 1927<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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\"2023

2023 Women\u2019s Basketball Team<\/p><\/div>\n

\"1927

1927 Women\u2019s Basketball Team<\/p><\/div>\n

Coach Bonde agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience this team has is special,\u201d said Bonde in an earlier email interview. \u201cI have six players who have been with me for three years; because of Covid, they all got an extra year to play. We finished third at the national tournament last year and they built off that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fans noticed, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had great crowds the past two years,\u201d Bonde said. \u201cWinning does that but, also, these players are all from southeast Minnesota for the most part \u2026 within an hour of RCTC \u2026 We have great sports teams at RCTC and young athletes who work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe games are so exciting,\u201d said RCTC student Margaret Tescher. \u201cIt\u2019s always fun watching and I feel like I\u2019m part of the team\u2019s success by following their season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonde is already thinking about next season, as seven players will be graduating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI plan to bring in another great recruiting class to go along with some great players who will be returning,\u201d he said. \u201cAs coaches, we put a lot of time and effort into finding players who want to play this way and who want to come to our great school. As coaches, we spend time not only \u00a0coaching our players and preparing for games, but recruiting young athletes we feel would be great fits into our programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he emphasized that the Yellowjackets, while winners on the court, are equally impressive off the court. The team GPA is 3.0, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great group of young ladies who are talented and driven to be successful not only on the court but in the classroom,\u201d Bonde said. \u201cThey work hard every day in practice, in the weight room, in the classroom, and they work hard for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echo staff writers Jordyn Oie, Mathew Clemons, Jessica Cormican, Erik Benson and Alexis Ofilas contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women\u2019s basketball team ends season with a winning 27-1 record First national title since 2009 By Piper Fuller The stakes were high during their final game, but the Yellowjacket women\u2019s basketball team brought the heat! They ended the season with 27 victories and just one loss, collecting their first national title since 2009. In addition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1015,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[51,48,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-campus","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}