Women's Basketball

COUGARS FACE KEUKA IN OPENING ROUND OF NCAA TOURNEY

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (2/26/07) - The NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Committee announced today the field and bracket of 63 teams for the 2007 championship. The Cougars will be on the road to take on Keuka College (18-7) on Friday, March 2nd at host Messiah College. Messiah (25-2) will host Westminster College (22-6) in the second game on Friday night.

Kean received the NJAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after claiming their league-leading 11th NJAC title Saturday afternoon, defeating William Paterson University, 62-59, at the buzzer. Keuka also received an automatic bid after winning the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) title, defeating Villa Julie College, 67-44. This is the first year that the winner of the NEAC Championship received an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

Messiah defeated Moravian College, 79-57, on Saturday to win the Commonwealth Conference Championship for the third year in a row, earning an automatic bid to this year's tournament. Westminster College was one of four teams to receive a Pool "B" bid. Westminster is part of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), but they do not receive an automatic berth.

Thirty-nine conferences have been awarded automatic qualification for the 2007 championship. Four teams were selected from Pool B, which consists of independent institutions, and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification. The final 20 berths were reserved for Pool C, which are institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion and any remaining Pool B teams