CORVALLIS — Talia von Oelhoffen took a black marker to her white shooting sleeve and in large block letters wrote HEART, a literal reminder to always wear her heart on her sleeve.

As if she needs it.

Von Oelhoffen might be the most passionate and expressive player in all of college basketball. She exudes heart. And on Sunday, she had a lot to celebrate.

She spun deliriously after hitting a deep three-pointer, flexed her arms downward after a big defensive stand and, when she assisted Timea Gardiner on a key fourth quarter three-pointer after Gardiner had missed several shots in a row, found her teammate and pointed right in her face.

“I told her, ‘You can miss your next 10. I can give you the ball and you shoot it when you’re open,’” von Oelhoffen said.

Oregon State is marching on.

With Sunday’s 61-51 win over the Cornhuskers, they punched a ticket to the Sweet 16 in the Albany (New York) Regional, where national heavyweight South Carolina lurks. The No. 3 seed Beavers will play No. 2 Notre Dame on Friday. This Oregon State team has long been deserving of a bigger stage. They got it briefly with their show-stopping win over UCLA, the night von Oelhoffen drilled a buzzer-beating three and leapt atop the scorer’s table.

HEART.

Now, the rest of the country has an opportunity to see what has had Beavers fans so excited and infused coach Scott Rueck with such a quiet confidence all season.

“To capture an entire fanbase the way they have and then to do it again with a national audience,” Rueck said, “I’m so excited for everybody and (for) more people to get to know them as their platform grows.”

Against Nebraska, von Oelhoffen scored a team-high 19 points to go with eight assists and four rebounds. But it’s hard to tell the story of her value to this team using numbers.

If you’re looking for a reason why Oregon State, picked to finish 10th in the Pac-12 by the conference’s coaches, is now among the final 16 teams standing in the country, none is bigger than the presence of von Oelhoffen.

She is the Beavers’ emotional leader and their veteran anchor. She was still playing so hard in the final minute, with Oregon State leading by 13, that she bulldozed through Nebraska point guard Jaz Shelley with an admittedly overzealous closeout.

The Beavers are not a one- or two-player team.

The Oregon men ran out of steam in their own tournament run because they had no choice but to lean on their two most productive players — Jermaine Couisnard and N’Faly Dante — until they had nothing left.

The OSU women have no such liability. They had the depth to withstand a brutal cold stretch in the second and third quarters. After scoring 19 points in the first quarter, they managed just 16 over the middle periods combined. They led 28-15 midway through the second quarter and just 35-29 by the start of the fourth.

Complicating matters, Raegan Beers, the Beavers’ reliable presence in the middle, struggled to stay on the court, picking up her fourth personal foul just before the end of the third quarter with the Beavers’ lead trimmed to six.

Beers is the Beavers’ leading scorer and rebounder. By most objective measures, she is their best player.

In the fourth quarter, they didn’t even need her.

Lily Hansford, von Oelhoffen and Gardiner buried threes in succession, and the Beavers poured in 29 points in the final period. Beers never got off the bench again.

The scoring was contagious. Led by Gardiner’s presence in the post, the Beavers’ defense was suffocating. Gardiner totaled four blocks, including two in a single possession.

Gill Coliseum was electric. And with every big play, von Oelhoffen raised her arms in celebration for everyone to see.

HEART.

Von Oelhoffen said that Rueck and the players talk about staying present in these moments. Taking it all in.

You can watch this team doing that in real time. “These are games that we’re going to tell our kids about,” von Oelhoffen said. “That we’re going to remember for the rest of our lives.”

There will be at least one more, as the Beavers will take on the Irish Friday in Albany.

OSU is coming for them.

On the underside of her shooting sleeve, the one on which she had written HEART, von Oelhoffen asked the members of her family and close friends who were at Sunday’s game to sign it. They offered little notes of encouragement. She jotted down the initials of a friend who died during OSU’s last tournament run in 2021.

“They’re just always with me on the court,” von Oelhoffen said.

Better hope they’re ready for the Sweet 16, too.

Because these Beavers are.