Women’s Basketball Draws 12 Seed in Louisville

By: Steve Miller – Sports Editor

The Dayton women’s basketball team will head back to the state of Kentucky, where they began an Elite Eight run in 2015. UD earned a 12-seed in the 2017 NCAA Tournament and will take on the University of Tennessee in Louisville, Ky. on Saturday at 4 p.m. for their first round matchup.

This is Dayton’s seventh ever appearance in the the national bracket. The Flyers made the field each year from 2010-2015 before missing out last year.

In 2015, the team was led by seniors Ally Malott and Andrea Hoover, both of whom were drafted to the WNBA following the season’s conclusion. After winning in round one, the Flyers defeated the University of Kentucky on the Wildcats’ home floor to advance to Dayton’s first ever Sweet Sixteen. Then, they defeated the University of Louisville before falling to Connecticut in the Elite Eight.

This season, the Flyers won both the Atlantic 10 regular season and tournament championships. They will enter the tournament having won 19 of their final 22 games, including their last four.

Unlike in 2015, when the team’s season-long goal was the Sweet Sixteen, the Flyers have been focusing on the day-to-day process this season under head coach Shauna Green. But now, they can turn their attention to the national stage.

“We really haven’t talked about the tournament a whole lot this year, we’re just taking it game by game,” redshirt senior guard Kelley Austria said in a press conference last week. “But I think we have the ability to go far.”

Photo courtesy of Brett Hansbauer