INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Trine University women's basketball team has advanced to the Sectional Round of the NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament. Trine, along with Ohio Northern University and New York University (NYU), will travel to Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky for Sectional Semifinal games on Friday, March 10.
The Thunder will go head-to-head with the Violets of NYU beginning at 4:30 p.m. inside the Clive M. Beck Center. Tickets for all NCAA Tournament games this weekend are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors and students and children two and under are free. There will be NO PRESALE and tickets can be purchased at the gate with cash or card. The gates will open one hour prior to tip-off.
Trine will make the trip to Transylvania for the Sectional Rounds for the second consecutive season and are the last remaining Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) school in the NCAA Tournament. In 2022, the Thunder beat the host Pioneers to get to the National Championship Semifinals for the first time in school history. In the opening rounds, Trine beat Washington University 79-69 and upended the site host Loras College 60-54. Trine is 23-6 overall this season.
A variety of elite performances led the Thunder to a pair of wins in Dubuque, Iowa last weekend. Senior guard Makayla Ardis neared a triple-double in the First Round game with a team-high 18 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. The Second Round saw freshman forward Abby Sanner net a career-high 19 points and was the catalyst of the offense in the first half with 15 of the team's 25 points. Sophomore guard Sidney Wagner put the game away at the free throw line in the final minute and collected 12 rebounds (career-high).
NYU qualified for the NCAA Tournament by winning the University Athletic Association (UAA) regular season title. The UAA does not have a postseason tournament, so the Violets have played a few less games than other teams at 24-2 this season. NYU has won 13 consecutive games, with their last loss coming to WashU on January 15. The Violets pit their scoring offense, ranked 13th in NCAA DIII (76.5 PPG), against Trine's stout scoring defense (52.7 PPG allowed). Junior forward Natalie Bruns, sophomore guard Belle Pellecchia and senior forward Jenny Walker are double-digit scorers for NYU. Bruns is ninth in the country in blocks per game while Pellecchia led the UAA in steals.
The second Sectional Semifinal game will see Transylvania (29-0) take on Ohio Northern (25-4) at 7 p.m. The Pioneers of Transylvania went unbeaten to the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) crown. The team beat Rhodes College (58-45) and Millikin University (71-59) to advance to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. The Polar Bears won both the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) regular season and tournament trophies. Ohio Northern took down Berea College (54-43) and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (71-60) to be one of 16 remaining teams.
The two Sectional Semifinal winners will play on Saturday, March 11 at 6:30 p.m. Stay tuned to www.trinethunder.com for more information on the NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament and visit the TOURNAMENT CENTRAL page.