Women's basketball was first played on the Seattle Pacific University campus in 1928 in an intramural or club sport capacity. According to the University's official published history, the Girls Athletic Association was divided amongst college and high school-age teams. Both the men's and women's teams played in an open-air, earthen-floor gym on the site of where Moyer Hall now stands.

It was not until nearly 50 years later that women's athletics on the campus significantly changed in stature. By 1972, the Seattle Pacific club program was playing an intercollegiate schedule of sorts. Doris Heritage, a member of the physical education department faculty and an assistant track and cross country coach, directed the effort, with the aid of Steve Gough, a former national champion decathlete.

Varsity status came about in 1975, with Virginia Husted, who had succeeded Heritage and Gough, serving as the first official head coach. The Lady Falcons, as they were then known, were affiliated nationally with the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), and locally with the Northwest Collegiate Women's Sports Association (NCWSA). For the first few years, SPU competed on a par with many of the Great Northwest's Division I schools, such as Washington, Oregon and Montana.

In 1982 Seattle Pacific affiliated with District 1 of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in several sports, including women's basketball. SPU qualified for the district playoffs on three occasions before opting to affiliate with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II, beginning in 1991.

In 1995, the Falcons played in the NCAA tournament for the first time, falling to eventual national runnerup Portland State in the West Region semifinal game. In 1997, SPU made the West Region final before being eliminated by host UC Davis. A year later, the Falcons avenged that defeat on their own floor, eliminating the Aggies in overtime to advance to the NCAA Elite Eight.

A second regional championship came in 2004 as SPU won 30 consecutive games en route to the Elite Eight, and in 2005 the Falcons reached the nationally-televised NCAA Championship game.

Under Coach Gordy Presnell, the program achieved 18 consecutive winning seasons, and in the last nine years captured six conference crowns, three regional championships and qualified for the NCAA tournament each year. Julie van Beek replaced Presnell in 2006 and posted the best first-year mark (24-6) of any coach.