March 18, 2013

2013 WNIT Bracket

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - Army, which shared the Patriot League regular-season title with eventual champion Navy, will visit Fordham Thursday in the first round of the WNIT, it was announced Monday night. Game time will be finalized Tuesday.

The Black Knights (22-8) were the No. 1 seed in the Patriot League Tournament but were ousted by eighth-seeded Colgate 48-40 in the quarterfinal round March 7. Thursday's matchup with the Rams will mark Army's first return to the floor in two weeks.

Teams that claim their conference's regular-season title (or are their conference tournament's No. 1 seed in the event of a tie) earn automatic bids to the 64-team WNIT. Following the automatic berths, the rest of the field is filled out by at-large selections that were not chosen for the NCAA Tournament.

The winner of the Army-Fordham clash will battle the winner between future Patriot League member Boston University and Sacred Heart, which will also take place Thursday night in Boston.

Fordham (24-8) surged into the final of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, where the Rams fell in a heartbreaker 47-46 to Saint Joseph's.

The Rams have won 15 of the 23 meetings between the two programs, which have not gone toe-to-toe since Fordham left the Patriot League after the 1994-95 season.

Army is making only its second postseason appearance. Its last trip came in 2006, when Maggie Dixon coached the Black Knights to their only Patriot League title and subsequent NCAA Tournament berth. Dave Magarity, the 2013 Patriot League Coach of the Year, was on Dixon's staff that year.

The Black Knights are the Patriot League's eighth representative in the WNIT, and will seek the League's first win in the tournament. 2013 is the seventh consecutive year in which a League team is in the WNIT field. The League has combined for an 0-7 record in the tournament since first sending a team in 2002.