Cleveland State to face Stanford in the First Round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship; Green Bay Earns WNIT berth
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Cleveland State University enters the 2008 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship as the No. 15 seed and will meet No. 2 seed Stanford at 8:30 p.m. (EST) on Saturday in Palo Alto, Calif. The First Round match-up will be televised live on ESPN2. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will also make a return trip to the postseason as it faces off against Drake in the First Round of the WNIT.
The winner of the Cleveland State-Stanford pairing will advance to the Second Round on Monday (March 24) against No. 7 seed UTEP or No. 10 seed Western Kentucky. The winner of the Green Bay-Drake contest will head to Illinois on Monday (March 24).
The Vikings earned the League's automatic berth in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship by defeating Wright State 70-56 in the Horizon League Championship final this past Sunday to earn the school's first-ever bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Cleveland State, who received the No. 4 seed in the League Tournament, advanced to the Championship title game following victories over No. 5 seed Butler (79-68) on March 12 and at No. 1 seed Green Bay (90-66) on March 14.
Cleveland State begins the Championship with a 19-13 overall record, including a 10-8 League mark. The Vikings' 19 victories this season mark an 11-win improvement from last year's 8-22 record and are the most wins by a CSU team since its 23-6 record in 1982-83.
Sophomore guard Kailey Klein leads the Vikings in scoring with an average of 19.9 points per game. Klein enters the NCAA Championship after she set a Horizon League Championship record with 67 points (22.3 points per game) en route to being selected as the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament. The CSU guard was also named to the All-Horizon League First Team.
Head coach Kate Peterson Abiad's Vikings rank fourth in the nation in free throw percentage, connecting at a clip of 80.0 percent.
The Phoenix will make its second appearance in the WNIT (1992, 2006). Green Bay received the automatic bid to the Tournament after it won the Horizon League regular-season crown with a 17-1 record. Green Bay's regular-season League crown was its 10th straight title.
Green Bay begins the WNIT with a 26-5 overall record and will face Drake for the second time this season. The Phoenix opened the 2007-08 campaign on the road against Drake and defeated the Bulldogs 78-66.
The Phoenix closed out the regular season on a 12-game winning streak and gained the No. 1 seed in the Horizon League Championship. In the League Championship, Green Bay increased its consecutive win streak to 13 games following an 83-67 victory over No. 9 seed Loyola before losing to (No. 4 seed) Cleveland State in the semifinals.
Green Bay's loss in the semifinals of Horizon League Championship marked just the second time since 1996 that the Phoenix had not played in the League title game.
Led by 2008 Co-Coach of the Year Matt Bollant, who began his first season in Green Bay this past November, the Phoenix feature a balanced offensive attack with four players averaging in double-figures led by senior guard Kayla Groh (14.2 points per game).
