Stonehill Women Earn NCAA Tourney Bid

The following is from Stonehill College:

Stonehill College has earned its 22nd bid to the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Championships and will be the No. 4-seed in next weekend's East Regional, hosted by top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Bentley University, at the Dana Athletic Center Friday, March 14 through Monday, March 17.

Stonehill is making its second straight NCAA Tournament appearance and 22nd overall in program history with an 18-9 record overall, including a 14-7 clip in Conference play. It marks the Skyhawks' ninth NCAA bid under head coach Trisha Brown, in her 13th season. Stonehill, which reached the regional semifinal last season before being defeated by eventual National Finalist Dowling College, has reached the regional final seven times in program history, capturing two regional titles in back-to-back seasons in 1994 and '95. The 1995 team reached the national semifinal round.

This year's East Regional will open with quarterfinal round action on Friday, March 15, followed by regional semifinals on Saturday, March 16, and the regional championship on Monday, March 18. Stonehill received an at-large bid and will open the regional with a quarterfinal battle against East Coast Conference Tournament Champions University of District of Columbia (21-7, 15-5 ECC), who also received an automatic bid, in Friday's final first round game at 8:30 p.m.

NE-10 regular season and tournament champions Bentley (29-0, 21-0 NE-10), ranked No. 1 in this week's USA TODAY Sports Division II poll, earned the top seed and automatic bid from the NE-10 and will serve as regional host. The Falcons will face Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference champions and automatic bid recipient Bloomfield College (20-9, 15-4 CACC) on Friday night at 6 p.m., with the winner facing the Stonehill/UDC victor on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Rounding out the East Regional field is Northeast-10 member Adelphi University (22-7, 14-6 NE-10), who earned an at large bid as the No. 2 seed, No. 3 seed LIU Post (22-6, 18-2 ECC), who received an at large bid from the East Coast Conference, sixth-seeded Assumption College (18-10, 13-8 NE-10), who earned an at large bid from the NE-10, with seventh-seeded University of New Haven (18-9, 13-7 NE-10), who collected the remaining at large bid and rounds out five Northeast-10 members in the field. The full regional schedule is listed below.

The winner of the East Region will advance to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight, which will be held March 25-28 at Erie Insurance Arena, hosted by Gannon University, in Erie, Pa., for the national quarterfinals, semifinals and championship. The East Region champs will face the winner of the Midwest Regional in a national quarterfinal.