For the first time since 1997, the Troy Women’s basketball team won the Sun Belt Conference championship and earned a berth to the NCAA tournament.

“We are trying to let it sink in, Its just too good to be true,” said Trojans head coach Chanda Rigby. “This is has been a dream my whole life. It’s fantastic.”

The Trojans defeated Arkansas State on Saturday to win the title and will face Oregon State at 4 p.m. Friday in the first round of the tournament.

“Our team had never been to a conference championship until a few days ago, and so people were asking us if we were ready,” Rigby said. “In the championship we played a team that had been to the championship game seven out of eight years, and you thought they would have the big advantage, but the girls had that fight in them. So anything can happen.

When the Trojans arrived back on campus on Sunday afternoon they were met by dozens of faithful. Lone senior Ashley Beverly Kelley was there leading the way with the trophy.

“It’s great,” Kelley said. “There was a lot of support there (during the game). We heard them even when we were down. They had our backs. That’s how we came back we heard them cheering.”

When Rigby took over the team in 2013, the Trojans were coming off a two-win season. Under Rigby, the Trojans have reached the 20-win plateau in back-to-back seasons and now have their first championship in 19 years.

“I keep going back to the word ‘faith,’” Rigby said. “That’s the only way I know how to do it. You have to believe in something you can’t see and get the people around you to believe. My staff coaches basketball. If I didn’t have a great staff this wouldn’t have happened.”

The Trojans entered the conference tournament after winning five straight games to end the regular season. They knew a big win against instate rival South Alabama in round one would go a long way to setting the tone of the tournament.

“That was our toughest one,” Rigby said. “That’s where faith comes in. We didn’t want those thoughts to creep in that we couldn’t get past the first round. Coach Simmons told us if we could get past the first game we are going to win this tournament.”

The Trojans upset the top two seeds of the tournament and became the lowest seed to win the Sun Belt Tournament.

“We upset people,” Rigby said. “We went in with an underdog spirit. We knew we were fighting uphill.”

Now, they will take that same spirit to the NCAA tournament, where the 15-seed Trojans will match up against second seed Oregon State. The Beavers finished the season 28-4 record and won both the Pac-12 regular season and tournament championship.

“The girls are focused. It didn’t matter which team came up on that screen,” Rigby said. “In their minds we are going to compete and we are going to win.”

The Trojans and the Beavers will tip things off on at 4:30 in Corvallis, Oregon. The game will be aired on ESPN2.

“We’re going to keep the same routine, the same plan, work hard, keep believing, try to find any advantage we can, use our run game, because that’s what brought us here, and go dance at the big dance,” Rigby said.