The University of Northern Colorado women's basketball team is one of 16 Division I teams making up the field of the 2009 Preseason Women's National Invitation Tournament. A total of 11 of the 16 teams played in the postseason in 2008-09. First round action begins November 13 with second round action set for Nov. 15-16, third round action for Nov. 18-19 and the championship game on Nov. 22.The Bears play at New Mexico in the first round on Friday, Nov. 13 at 7pm MT in one of the best-attended arenas in women's basketball. Last season, the Lobos advanced to the quarterfinals of the postseason WNIT and return all but two players from a 25-11 team. The winner of Northern Colorado and UNM will play the winner of Florida Gulf Coast-UTEP.
The Bears are the first Big Sky Conference team to be selected for the preseason WNIT since Idaho State competed in 2006 and lost to BYU in the first round.
"This is a great honor for both Northern Colorado and women's basketball," said Head Coach Jaime White. "We are really looking forward to playing at New Mexico to start our season. It will be a great experience for our team to play in that environment and begin the year with three games against the quality of competition the WNIT has selected.”
