Under head coach Ryun Williams, the Colorado State women’s basketball program has made a habit out of winning the Mountain West, taking home the last three regular season conference championships, something no other program has ever achieved.

Fresh off of being tabbed preseason favorites to win the Mountain West once again, the CSU women’s hoops action kicks off with a 7:00 P.M. exhibition game against CSU-Pueblo at Moby Arena Friday night.

“It’s always nice to play somebody different,” Williams stated in a general release. “We’ve had 20 practices where we’ve gone against each other. We need to play somebody where we don’t know what’s coming. It’s very important to see who can handle the stage. We’ve got a lot of players that played good minutes for us last year, but their role is totally different. How they adapt and adjust to more responsibility is going to be the key to a successful season.”

Coming off of a record setting 2015-16 season, in which the Rams went 18-0 in conference play and captured both the regular season and Mountain West Tournament championships, the expectations for Williams’ Rams could not be higher.

Colorado State returns nine letterwinners from last season and multiple key contributors including 2015-16 MW Player of the Year Ellen Nystrom and her Swedish counterpart Elin Gustavsson (the 2016 MW Tournament Most Outstanding Player).

Williams has turned this program into a consistent winner and has made Moby Arena one of the most feared destinations in all of women’s college basketball. Under Williams, CSU is 90-37 overall, and 55-15 in Mountain West play.

Over the last five years, the team has slowly but surely built off of the previous season which has resulted in unprecedented success. The Williams-era features the Rams only appearance in the top-25 and NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002, which they accomplished in 2015-16. The Rams will look to continue that success into the 2016-17 season.

The Colorado State women’s basketball team opens the regular season on Friday, Nov. 11 against the Omaha Mavericks. The matchup is set to tip off at 7:00 p.m. from Moby Arena and also marks the beginning of Preseason WNIT play for the Rams.

Collegian sports reporter Justin Michael can be reached by email at sports@collegian.com or Twitter @JustinTMichael.