Huntingdon women’s basketball to face 19th-ranked Ferrum in NCAA Tournament
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon women's basketball team has had a lot to take in during the past 24 hours.
Winning the program's first Great South Athletic Conference title on Sunday ensured the Lady Hawks their first berth in the NCAA Tournament. Monday afternoon, team members and coaches gathered in head coach Buzz Phillips' office to watch the Division III Women's Basketball Selection Show.
Huntingdon's game was the next-to-last one announced, but it was worth the wait.
"We weren't nervous because we knew they were going to call our name at some point," Huntingdon senior Morgan Crawford said. "But it was still exciting when they called out our name. It's still a little surreal. To accomplish as much as we have this season, it's an amazing feeling. It's an honor to be part of the first Huntingdon team to make it to the NCAA Tournament."
The Lady Hawks (18-9) will play 19th-ranked Ferrum (24-4) in the first round of the tournament on Friday at Emory University in Atlanta. Game times will be announced on Tuesday.
The game will be one of two hosted at Emory on Friday. The 16th-ranked Eagles (22-3) and Whitworth (21-6) will play in the other first-round game.
Friday's winners will face each other in the second round on Saturday.
Huntingdon was one of 64 teams selected for this year's field. The Lady Hawks were one of 43 teams to receive an automatic bid for winning their conference tournament.
"This is a great moment for our program," Phillips said. "The girls are excited and so am I. We have put in a lot of hard work and we've overcome a lot to get this far. The way this team has come together this season and the way we've developed during the course of the season, it says a lot about this group."
Emory is one of 16 sites for the first and second rounds of the tournament on March 1-2. Second-round winners advance to one of four sectional sites on March 8-9. Winners of the sectional sites advance to the national semifinals on March 15-16.
Through the semifinals, all games will be played on the campus of competing institutions. The finals will be held at DeVos Fieldhouse on the campus of Hope College in Holland, Mich.
As information regarding game times, tickets, live stats and live broadcasts becomes available, it will be posted on the women's basketball page on HuntingdonHawks.com, under the link NCAA Tournament.
Information will also be posted on the Huntingdon Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/HCHawksAthletics) and the Huntingdon Twitter page (https://twitter.com/search/HCHawksSports)