The Eagles Online -- Ashland University Athletics

Eagles Claim First Trip to NCAA Women's Basketball Playoffs
March 8, 2004

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Spring break in Quincy, IL? That might not be where the majority of Ashland University students will be this week but that’s where the Ashland University women’s basketball team will travel. No one’s complaining. This group will gladly take Quincy over Dayton Beach or Orlando, FL.

Quincy University is hosting the 2004 NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional Tournament. For the first time in school history, the Eagles are part of the field. The Eagles received word late Sunday (Mar. 7) night that they are the sixth seed in the field. AU’s first-round game is against Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foe Ferris State. The game will be played at noon (Central Time) on Friday (Mar. 12). AU and Ferris met last Friday in the semifinals of the GLIAC Tournament and FSU won in overtime, 86-80. Ferris State is the third seed.

“It’s everything you work for through the season and it’s what you work for when you’re recruiting,” said AU head coach Sue Ramsey, when asked her thoughts about advancing to the playoffs. “This is a big step for us.”

The Eagles have been taking big steps all year. The Eagles enter the NCAA postseason party with wins in six of their last seven games. AU is 22-5 and that win total is a school record. AU won the GLIAC South Division championship this season.

The AU-FSU game is the first of four games on Friday at Quincy. At 2:30 p.m., Lake Superior State (#2 seed) will play Southern Indiana (#7). Host Quincy (#1) plays Northern Kentucky (#8) at 5:30 p.m., and at 8 p.m., Indianapolis (#4) will tangle with Bellarmine (#5).

Should AU win the first round game, it will play the winner of the Lake Superior State-Southern Indiana game Saturday at 5 p.m. The regional championship game is Monday at 7:30 p.m.

There was little doubt that the Eagles would get good news on Sunday. The Eagles had played well in the season’s latter stages. A win over Northern Michigan in the first round of the GLIAC playoffs may have been the clincher. NMU, which had been regionally ranked for most of the season, did not make the playoff field. The Great Lakes regional field includes three teams from the GLIAC and five from the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

“I would say it (NCAA playoffs) kind of dawned on us in the middle of February,” said Ramsey. “Beating Gannon and Findlay, after those two wins, we felt we were peaking at the right time. Secondly, we had been regionally ranked since they started ranking teams in the middle of January. We knew if we could get it done the second time through the South Division we would be OK. The Northern Michigan game was a big win for the program and I think it also secured getting us into the regional.”

Many times, coaches have to scramble to get scouting reports when the playoffs begin. That won’t be a problem for this first round game. AU and FSU have met twice this season and the Bulldogs have won both games. AU is 2-2 against this playoff field. The Eagles have beaten Indianapolis and Lake Superior State.