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SEATTLE – It's official: The Seattle Pacific Falcons are going dancing.
 
The Falcons were selected for the NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament on Sunday night, slotted in as the No. 6 seed in the eight-team West Regional.
 
SPU, with its 23-7 record, will open play on Friday against No. 3 seed UC San Diego (27-4) at Azusa Pacific University, the regional host school. Tip-off time is at 12 noon.
 
This will be Seattle Pacific's first NCAA Tournament since 2015. That West Regional was played at Alaska Anchorage, where the Falcons beat Humboldt State in the first round before falling to Cal Poly Pomona in the semifinals.

 

"That was our goal all year was to get to the NCAA Regionals, and that's what we worked for – and we're there," said coach Julie Heisey, who has her team in the NCAAs for the eighth time in her 13 years at the helm. "I just talked to (senior) Courtney Hollander, and she said it's like giving us new life.
 
"I do agree with Courtney," she added. "We're tired, but we're excited we have a new season, and we're excited to be playing someone we haven't played since November."
 
The Falcons and Tritons met at the Azusa Pacific West Region Crossover Classic on Nov. 18 Seattle Pacific was down by one late in the game, but Jordan McPhee scored the team's final 10 points of an eventual 65-59 victory.
 
"They have good shooters on the outside, and both of their post players are very good," Heisey said. "They run Princeton, which is one of the hardest offenses to guard. We're playing a team that's used to winning."
 
UC San Diego, which will transition into Division I beginning in 2020, has three players averaging in double figures and one who is as good as there. Dalayna Sampton, a 6-foot-1 senior forward, averages a double-double of 14.4 points and 10.3 rebounds (15 against SPU in the crossover tournament). Mikayla Williams, a 6-1 sophomore forward, leads the team in scoring at 15.6 points per game and collects an average of 9.3 boards.
 
Kayla Sato, a 5-8 junior guard, averages 12.6 points each night, and 5-6 junior guard Joleen Yang is at 9.9. Sato had a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds against SPU in November. Yang led the way with 17 points,
 
The Tritons had a 12-game winning streak going before Humboldt beat them in the California Collegiate Athletic Association title game on Saturday, 76-75. They also enjoyed an 11-game winning streak from late November through mid January.
 
The other pairing in SPU's half of the bracket is No. 2 seed Hawaii Pacific against No. 7 Montana State Billings. The Sharks won the Pacific West Conference crown on Saturday by downing Point Loma Nazarene, 77-71. Billings beat SPU in Saturday night's Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament title game, 71-61.
 
In the other half of the bracket, No. 1 seed Azusa will face No. 8 Humboldt State in the first round. Humboldt, which wasn't even in last week's regional rankings, stunned UC San Diego in the California Collegiate Athletic Association final on Saturday, 76-75. Azusa fell to Point Loma Nazarene in the Pacific West Conference semifinals.
 
The Azusa-Humboldt winner meets the winner of an all-GNAC contest between No. 4 seed Northwest Nazarene and No. 5 Alaska Anchorage. The Nighthawks and Seawolves will get to play the game they had hoped to play at the conference tournament in Anchorage before both fell in the semifinals – NNU to Billings, and UAA to Seattle Pacific.
 
Of the seven other teams in the Regional field, Seattle Pacific played six of them this season (all except Hawaii Pacific) and beat five of them: Anchorage and Billings (both two out of three), and San Diego, Azusa and Humboldt (once each). Northwest Nazarene won both games against the Falcons.
 
 "It's going to be a tournament with a lot of parity," Heisey said. "We lost on Saturday, but we had some experience that you can only get through experience. To play three games in three days (at the GNAC Tournament), there's something to be learned from that. There's something to be learned just from having to fight through adversity. Different people in different games had to step up."
 
The semifinals are set for Saturday at 5:00 and 7:30 p.m. (the Falcons would be in the first one if they win on Friday). The championship game is next Monday, March 12, at 7:00 p.m.

 
NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WEST REGIONALS
At Azusa Pacific
 
FIRST ROUND
Friday, March 9
Game 1: (3) UC San Diego (27-4) vs. (6) Seattle Pacific (23-7), 12 noon
Game 2: (2) Hawaii Pacific (26-3) vs. (7) Montana State Billings (22-11), 2:30 p.m.
Game 3: (4) Northwest Nazarene (20-4) vs. (5) Alaska Anchorage (25-4), 5:00 p.m.
Game 4: (1) Azusa Pacific (27-4) vs. (8) Humboldt State (18-12), 7:30 p.m.
 
SEMIFINALS
Saturday, March 10
Game 5: Winner 1 vs. Winner 2, 5:00 p.m.
Game 6: Winner 3 vs. Winner 4, 7:30 p.m.
 
CHAMPIONSHIP
Monday, March 12
Game 7: Winner 5 vs. Winner 6, 7:00 p.m.