2010 WNIT Bracket
NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona College women's basketball team will travel to College Park, MD to take on the University of Maryland in its first round matchup in the 64-team field in the Women's National Invitational Tournament. The Gaels (18-13) appear in the WNIT for the third time in the last four seasons. Tip-off time will be announced tomorrow.
"This will certainly tremendous challenge for our program as we take on a former national champion and ACC foe Maryland," said head coach Anthony Bozzella. "We are looking forward to the opportunity to play against a great team and we'll go down there and do the best we can."
Maryland finished 19-12 overall and were the ninth place team in the ACC this season. Like the Gaels, the Terrapins feature a balanced attack with four players averaging nine or more points per game. Sophomore 6-4 center Lynetta Kizer is the team's leading scorer and rebounder at 13.0 points and 7.6 boards per game. Freshman 6-3 forward Diandra Tchatchouang poured in 11.9 ppg and 5.5 rebounds. She also hit 32 three pointers while starting all 31 of the Terps contests. Senior guard Lori Bjork averages 10.9 ppg and a team leading 77 trifectas. Rookie forward 6-3 Tianna Hawkins adds 9.0 ppg off the bench while rookie PG Dara Taylor has added a team best 5.0 assists per game.
Five Iona players were named to an All-MAAC team prior to the MAAC Championship at the beginning of the month. Senior guard Thazina Cook was named to the First Team while senior forward Anna McLean, junior forward Anda Ivkovic and junior guard Suzi Fregosi were selected as Third Team honorees. Freshman guard Diana Hubbard was the fifth member of the quartet earning All-Rookie honors.
The Gaels last faced an ACC opponent on Nov. 11, 2006. Though McLean was the only current student-athlete to play in the contest, both assistant coach Toni Horvath and director of basketball operations Jessica Anger also appeared in the contest.
The winner of the Iona-Maryland contest advances to the second round of the expanded WNIT and will face either Drexel or East Carolina.