Updated: Feb. 9, 2015 at 10:21 p.m.

This post was written by Hatchet staff writer Rob Bartnichak.

With 13 Atlantic 10 regular season titles, four A-10 tournament titles, and 15 NCAA tournament appearances, women’s basketball has a history of successful teams. However, they have been absent from the Top 25 rankings since 2008.

With wins against Davidson and Dayton on Thursday and Sunday, the Colonials capped their first week of contests as a ranked team after pulling into the No. 24 slot in the Associate Press poll on Tuesday.

So, in honor of the Colonials’ return to the rankings, we’re taking a look at that Sweet 16 Squad.

That team entered the season ranked No. 13, so this years squad is more of an overachiever. The first game of the season, Kimberly Beck became the 23rd Colonial in history to score her 1,000th career point.

The team faltered a bit midseason, falling to No. 21 after giving up a 24-point lead at halftime to lose to unranked UNLV in late November. The Colonials, though, then went on a 9 game win streak including wins over the Nos. 10 and 18 teams in Texas A&M and Auburn to climb back to No. 17.

The team was ranked 13th heading into the A-10 tournament but, following a semifinals loss to Xavier, fell back to No. 20 at the start of the NCAA tournament where the team was a six-seed. GW fell in the Sweet 16 to No. 2-seed Rutgers.

GW finished the season at 27-7, and a 15-5 conference record with a +11.3 scoring margin and a +4.8 turnover margin. The Colonials shot 43 percent from the field and held the opposition to 37 percent from the field.

Then junior and First Team All-Atlantic 10 Selection Jessica Adair paced the 2007-2008 Colonials. She led GW with 15.2 points per game (good for ninth in the conference), 6.1 rebounds per game, and a 52 percent field goal percentage.

Depth was one of the 2007-2008 team’s biggest strengths. Four players – Adair, Sarah-Jo Lawrence, Beck and Antelia Parrish – averaged greater than ten points per game, and six players shot greater than 40 percent from the field.

This ranked team has some similar numbers. The current team has a scoring margin of +16.2 and a turnover margin of +1.6. The present team is shooting 42 percent while holding teams to 36 percent. The 2007-08 team, though, was more guard-centric than this one, with the current Colonials holding a much smaller turnover margin but a much larger rebound margin of +13.5.

Junior and Naismith Trophy candidate Jonquel Jones, who is also putting up Adairian numbers, is leading the team. She is averaging 15.7 points per game (good for sixth in the conference) and 12.3 rebounds per game (good for sixth in the country). She is the only player in the conference averaging a double-double, and shooting a conference third-best 50 percent.

When the Colonials got their final win of the year in the Round of 32, the senior class on that team picked up their 101st win in GW uniforms. It was a bittersweet send off, though, as the team then embarked on a half-decade of rebuilding just to get their next postseason win. But it looks like that cycle has come full-circle now, and voters are taking note.

This post was updated to reflect the following correction:
The Hatchet incorrectly reported that the team has 15 NCAA Tournament titles. The women’s basketball team has had 15 NCAA Tournament appearances. We regret this error.