The DePauw women's basketball team tips off their NCAA Tournament campaign tonight at 7 p.m. against Westminster College (Fulton, Miss.), after earning a No. 1 seed and home court advantage by winning the NCAC tournament. Neal Fieldhouse will host the opening two rounds of the tournament.
The game tonight marks DePauw's 13th NCAA tournament appearance in 17 years. Tonight's game will also stamp the team's ninth straight NCAA tournament appearance.
The Tigers hold an impressive 19-11 record in post-season play.
Recently voted NCAC women's basketball coach of the year Kris Huffman is 431-101 in her overall career as she heads into this year's tournament. The Tigers will be fresh from their first NCAC tournament championship and hungry to add more hardware to her already cluttered trophy case. The Tigers were Div. III National Champions in 2007.
Senior Katie Aldrich, recently voted NCAC women's basketball player of the year, leads an offense capable of scoring in bunches. Fellow NCAC First-Team member Ali Ross should continue to provide support with precision from the three-point line.
Friday will be the first time in DePauw women's basketball that the Tigers will face the Blue Jays and also marks Westminster's first NCAA Tournament appearance in the program's history.
Westminster enters the Tournament with a 22-4 record. The Blue Jays are fresh off of their first St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship. The squad features some offensive weapon of its own, including the SLIAC MVP, senior guard Rachel Backes.
Senior Guard Kathryn Denbow is excited for the game. Denbow stresses the team relies on Huffman's philosophy of the "Four Pillars." These four pillars include defense, rebounding, taking care of the ball, and free throws. Denbow is confident that if the team sticks to what it knows, it will rise to every occasion.
"We know that those four [pillars] should be automatic every game and if we do those then our offense will flow," Denbow said.
Provided the Tigers overcome the Blue Jays, the team will receive no breaks in the second-round as both the War Hawks of Wisconsin-Whitewater University and the Lady Red of Carthage College bring NCAA tournament experience. Whitewater, who play in the match preceding DePauw, knocked DePauw out of the 2008 NCAA quarter finals on its way to a third place finish. Carthage College is 2-2 in NCAA tournament and its game Friday will mark the school's third appearance to the NCAA Tournament, most recently in 2010.
Carthage and Wisconsin-Whitewater tips off at 5 p.m. with the DePauw and Westminster match following at 7 p.m. in the opening round of the NCAA championship. Students will be admitted into the game for free if they bring their Tiger cards.