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Women's Basketball Sent to Ohio for First Rounds of NCAAs

Monday, February 27, 2012
 

Men’s lacrosse honor

NCAA women's basketball The Muhlenberg women’s basketball team has been sent south, east and north for the NCAA Division III Tournament. Now it is being sent west.

The Mules, who earned an automatic bid by

Alexandra Chili
Senior Alexandra Chili was named Centennial Conference player of the week for her performance in the playoffs. She recorded double-doubles in both tournament games, averaging 20.0 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.5 steals, and became the CC’s all-time leading scorer.
winning the Centennial Conference championship at Johns Hopkins on Saturday, will travel to the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio, for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament this weekend.

Muhlenberg (22-5) will face NCAA Tournament newcomer Catholic (22-5), the champion of the Landmark Conference, in the first round. The game is tentatively scheduled for Friday, March 2, at 5:00.

Like the Mules, the Cardinals beat the regular-season champion (Juniata) on the road in their conference title game. Muhlenberg and Catholic have four common opponents in Washington College, McDaniel, Moravian and New Jersey. The Mules went 6-0 in those games, while the Cardinals were 4-2, losing twice to Washington.

The two schools have met in women’s basketball only once before, in 1992.

The other half of the pod matches Mount Union (26-1) against La Roche (22-5). Mount Union, best known for its prominence in Division III football, was ranked sixth in the most recent D3hoops.com poll and also has a strong history in women’s basketball, having reached the national semifinals twice.

The Mules are making their eighth NCAA Tournament appearance overall and their sixth in the last seven years. The only time during that span that they played in the immediate area was when they hosted in 2008; their other destinations were Fredericksburg, Va. (2006), Brunswick, Maine (2009), Union, N.J. (2010) and Rochester, N.Y. (2011).

Muhlenberg is 6-7 in its NCAA appearances and has advanced to the “Sweet 16” two of the last three years.

Women’s basketball is the first team in College athletic history to make five straight NCAA Tournament appearances; men’s soccer (1989-92 and 1994-97) and softball (1989-92) had four-year runs.
Click here for the complete bracket.