The longest active winning streak in women’s college basketball ended Thursday night when NYU fell 60-52 to Scranton in the NCAA Division III Final Four.

The loss snapped a run of 91 consecutive victories, the second-longest in NCAA history behind the 111-game streak for the UConn women’s team from 2014-2017. NYU had won back-to-back national championships.

Scranton will face Denison on Saturday for the national championship.

“Contrary to popular belief, I do remember what this feels like,” NYU coach Meg Barber said. “That locker room hates to lose, but what we talked about in there is (that) it’s never been about the scoreboard for this group.

“I thought tonight was a win for this team in terms of what they showed the NYU community and the NYU fans what they were made of.”

A historic run for @nyuwomenshoops comes to an end tonight. Couldn’t be more proud of what they’ve accomplished and can’t wait to see what they do next 💜 pic.twitter.com/f3lAclqYAk

— NYU Athletics (@NYUAthletics) March 20, 2026

The Violets battled back from a double-digit halftime deficit to pull within three in the third quarter and four in the fourth, only to see Scranton weather their rallies.

Barber said she felt a key moment came in the fourth quarter after NYU’s Olivia Lagao hit a jumper to narrow the Scranton lead to 52-44.

“(We) had two back-to-back turnovers and I think, you know, we’d love to have those back, but we had tired players out there that had that were working their butts off on defense,” Barber said. “You wish you had about 14 timeouts when you’re giving that much effort and, you know, just those are play opportunities, and we just missed out on a couple of those.”

Barber praised her team’s resilience, particularly senior Caroline Peper, who ends her career at No. 9 on NYU’s all-time scorers list after finishing the loss with 19 points.

“She’s a coach on the floor,” Barber said of Peper. “I don’t know who I’m going to talk to next year during games. I mean, I had a conversation with her at halftime, just sitting on the bench.

“I have absolutely loved coaching Caroline Peper. This is like a one-of-a-one opportunity to coach somebody with an IQ and understanding the game and being so selfless that like, ‘Hey, I’m being faceguarded. Let me go set a screen for somebody else, and I’ll get them open.’”

Peper, the Violets’ lone senior, reflected on her time with NYU after the loss, saying, “This team really means the world to me.”

“I said to them at the end, you know, I couldn’t have picked a better team to go out with,” Peper said. “There’s no other girls that I wanted to be my teammates this year. And I’m hoping that they remember everything that I said to them as they continue.

“Just it’s such a fun group of girls, and I’d do anything for them, and I’d do anything for another game with them.”

Barber said the Violets have a bright future but will take some time to reflect.

“This run, I don’t think we’ve had a chance to really enjoy what has transpired,” she said. “(Peper) has all 91 games on her back to put her name to.”