POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The Marist women's basketball team will travel to Los Angeles, Calif. for the first round of the NCAA Tournament as the 2009 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament bracket was announced Monday night. The Red Foxes were given the 12th seed in the Trenton regional and will take on the fifth-seeded Virginia Cavaliers on Saturday after the California/Fresno State game.
Marist enters the 2009 NCAA Tournament with a record of 29-3 after winning its fourth-straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Championship. Led by the Pepsi Max MAAC Player of the Year Rachele Fitz (Seven Hills, Ohio) and the MAAC Tournament MVP Julianne Viani (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.), the Red Foxes have won their last nine games and 12 of their last 13. Fitz became Marist's all-time leading scorer on Jan. 30 and now has 1,827 career points. She is averaging 20.6 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, shooting 60.5% from the field. Viani scored her 1,000th career point earlier this season at Harvard and is averaging 15.6 points per game.
Virginia enters the NCAA Tournament with a record of 23-9, going 8-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Cavaliers are led in scoring by Monica Wright and Lyndra Littles, who both average 20.5 points per game. Aisha Mohammed averages a double-double of 13 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Virginia won its first-round game in the ACC Tournament over Virginia Tech 66-57 before losing in the quarterfinals to Duke 76-53. The Cavaliers were ranked as high as #11 in the polls this season.
The meeting between the Red Foxes and Virginia will be the first for the two teams. The last time Marist went out to California for the NCAA Tournament was in 2007 when the Red Foxes defeated Ohio State and Middle Tennessee State at Stanford to reach the Sweet Sixteen. Gametime for Saturday will be 30 minutes after the California/Fresno State game, which will be played at 8 p.m. eastern.