The Lions have gone where no women’s team at our school has gone before.
In 35 years, we had never won a LSC tournament game. Last year’s team took care of that by pulling off a thrilling victory in the first round of the conference tournament.
Needless to say, expectations have been high this season following last seasons success and our Lions have exceeded what anyone could have imagined.
And there is no reason why it can’t continue into the NCAA tournament.
In the latest USA Today/ESPN Divison II Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, the Texas A&M-Commerce women’s basketball team received a school record seven votes.
In Sunday’s selection show, the Lions moved to the No. 4 spot in the South Central Region and will face No. 5 seeded and No. 13 ranked Emporia State (22-7) on Friday night.
It is the tenth trip to the NCAA tournament for the ESU women, competing in the highly contested MIAA, which boasts No. 1 seed Missouri Western (29-3 and a possible second round match-up) and No. 3 seed Washburn (27-3).
The Lady Hornets are led by Forward Michelle Stueve who is the conference pace-setter in scoring, with an average of 18.0 points per game coming into the week, as well as in rebounds at 9.4 rpg. She has a league-high 12 double-doubles this season, and makes a conference-best 86.1 percent of her free throws.
ESU’s Cassondra Boston is a speedy point guard with scoring capability. She is the top scoring rookie in the MIAA (12.4 ppg — tied for 11th overall in the league) and averages 3.15 assists per game (eighth in the MIAA).
Should the Lions win on Friday, they would take on the winner of the Mo. Western-Montana-St.Billings game.