CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- For the first time since 1999, three America East women's basketball teams will be playing beyond the America East Championship and in either the NCAA Tournament or Postseason Women's National Invitation Tournament. The league champion, the Vermont Catamounts, received a No. 16 seed in the Big Dance and drew top-ranked Connecticut in the first round of the Trenton Regional, while Boston University and Hartford will host WNIT games.
The Catamounts will play the Huskies on Sunday, March 22 at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., Connecticut's home court. UConn (33-0) is the BIG EAST Regular Season and Tournament Champion. Game time is 12 noon and will be shown live on both ESPN2 and ESPNU.
The ESPN family of networks will cover the entire Women's Basketball NCAA Championship. For
the first two rounds of the tournament, multiple games will begin within one
telecast window on ESPN or ESPN2. In
the
home markets of the competing teams, ESPN or ESPN2 will televise the
game
of local interest. Fans can also catch entire games on ESPN's Full
Court Package or on ESPN360.com. Please refer to the attached Coverage
Guidelines for more details.
Vermont (21-11), the preseason favorite to win the America East, won the conference championship as the third seed by toppling top-seeded Boston U. in the title game on Sunday. The Catamounts are led by First-Team All-Conference pick junior guard Courtnay Pilypaitis, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player by averaging 20 points per game and recording two double-doubles.
Boston University won the conference's regular season crown, went undefeated in league play and won a school-record 24 games. As the highest-finishing team in the regular season from America East not receiving a bid into the NCAA Tournament, the Terriers received an automatic berth into the WNIT and will host Central Connecticut State (18-13) of the Northeast Conference this Thursday. The winner will meet the ACC's Boston College in Chestnut Hill next Monday.
Hartford (20-11) finished second in America East during the regular season and fell to Vermont in the tournament semifinals on its own homecourt. The Hawks, who received the league's NCAA bid last season and won a first-round game, will be playing in the postseason for the fifth straight season. Receiving a first-round bye in the WNIT, Hartford will host the winner of Friday's Harvard-St. John's match-up in New York at Chase Arena on Sunday.
The Postseason WNIT features 16 first-round
games, followed by 16 second-round games, eight third-round games, four
quarterfinal games, two semifinal games and the championship. The WNIT championship game will begin at 2
p.m. ET Saturday, April 4, and will be hosted by one of the two final
participating schools.
In 1999, Maine and Northeastern both played in the NCAA Championship, while New Hampshire participated in the WNIT. That season was the first time three America East teams received postseason bids.