by STILLWATER, Okla. – Oklahoma State’s women’s basketball team earned a spot in the NCAA Championship field for the third year in a row.
The Cowgirls will be the No. 10 seed in the Greensboro Region. OSU will face seventh-seeded Florida Gulf Coast at 11 a.m. (EST) on Saturday in Tallahassee, Fla. The two squads met in the first round of the tournament last season with the Cowgirls escaping with a 61-60 overtime win in West Lafayette, Ind.
The contest will be televised by ESPN2 with a spot in the second round against the Florida State-Alabama State winner on the line.
“I’m just excited to be in the tournament. Any time that you can get to the NCAA Tournament, that’s what you work for in the offseason and during the summer. We got off to such a rocky start and I’m proud of our kids for hanging in there. When we got off to a 2-6 start, there was some doubt, but the kids hung in there. We got better as the season progressed. We got strong and I’m proud of what they have accomplished,” OSU head coach Jim Littell said.
OSU will enter the event with a record of 20-11, while FGCU stands at 30-2.
OSU is 10-12 all time in NCAA action after reaching the Sweet 16 for the third time in program history a year ago.
Lakota Beatty (Caddo/Lakota/Gros Ventre) will appear in her second consecutive NCAA tournament with the Cowgirls.
This year’s NCAA appearance extends OSU’s school-record string of postseason bids to nine. The Cowgirls made NCAA appearances in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2014. OSU participated in the WNIT in 2009 and 2011 before winning its first-ever WNIT title in 2012.
