Complete NCAA bracket (PDF)
SEATTLE -- For the third straight year, the Seattle Pacific Falcons will play the host role for the NCAA Division II West Region women’s basketball tournament.
The Falcons, who clinched the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship on Saturday night with a 67-60 victory at Alaska Anchorage, will welcome seven other teams to Royal Brougham Pavilion beginning this Friday.
First-round games will match No. 3 seed Western Washington against No. 6 Chico State, No. 2 UC San Diego against No. 7 Humboldt State, and No. 4 Alaska Anchorage against No. 5 Cal Poly Pomona at 5:30, then No. 1 and host Seattle Pacific against No. 8 Hawaii Pacific.
The Falcons (24-3, 15-1 GNAC) and Hawaii Pacific (17-6, 13-2 Pacific West Conference with one game left) will tip off at 7:30 p.m. Other game times are 12:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., but the exact order of the other games has yet to be confirmed.
Semifinal games are set for Saturday at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., with the championship game and its berth to the Elite Eight scheduled for Monday, March 15, at 7 p.m.
The Elite Eight is set for March 23, 24 and 26 in St. Joseph, Mo.
"The bottom line is you have to win three games no matter where you go," Falcons coach Julie van Beek said of getting the homecourt advantage. "Knowing you don't have to travel is really nice, and we're going to have a lot more fans by being at home. It's more fun when you have people cheering you on rather than cheering against you."
This is SPU's 14th straight trip to the NCAA tourney and its 15th in the past 16 years.
Seattle Pacific, ranked 18th nationally last week, has advanced to the West Region title game the past two years in Brougham, falling both times to Alaska Anchorage. A rematch won’t take place in this year’s finals, but it could happen in the semis if the Falcons and Seawolves win their openers on Friday.
SPU has played five of the other seven teams in the tournament field during this year’s regular season, Hawaii Pacific being one of the two exceptions. (Cal Poly Pomona is the other.) The Sea Warriors of Honolulu are the automatic qualifier from the Pacific West Conference. They will play their regular-season finale on Monday at home against Brigham Young-Hawaii. That game was postponed on Feb. 27 because of a tsunami warning.
This will be just the second meeting all-time between the schools. Seattle Pacific won the only previous contest, an 80-51 nonconference in 1985 when the Falcon were still an NAIA program.