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6/30/2009 - WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
FGCU to Open 2009-10 Season in WNIT
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FORT MYERS, FLA. - The FGCU women's basketball team will begin the 2009-2010 season by participating in the Preseason Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT), hosting UTEP in the first round on Friday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.
The Preseason WNIT field includes 11 teams that played in the postseason last spring: Arkansas-Little Rock, Bowling Green, Florida Gulf Coast, Georgia Tech, Marist, New Mexico, North Carolina A&T, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, and Winthrop. They will be joined in the Preseason WNIT field by Chicago State, Eastern Illinois, Northern Colorado, Towson, and UTEP.
The winner of the FGCU-UTEP game will play the winner of the Northern Colorado-New Mexico contest in the second round on either Sunday, Nov. 15 or Monday, Nov. 16. The semifinals will be Nov. 18-19; and the championship is set for Sunday, Nov. 22. Teams that lose in the first two rounds will play consolation games on the second weekend, Nov. 20-22. All games are hosted by participating schools, and sites are announced by the end of the preceding round.
The other first-round games will be Eastern Illinois at Ohio State, Arkansas-Little Rock at Oklahoma State, Towson at West Virginia, Winthrop at Georgia Tech, Chicago State at Bowling Green and North Carolina A&T at Marist. Four of the 16 teams appeared in the 2009 NCAA Tournament (Georgia Tech, Marist, North Carolina A&T, Ohio State).
This year will mark the 16th-annual Preseason WNIT, and the first time that the Eagles will participate.
The remainder of FGCU's 2009-2010 schedule will be announced at a later date.
The Lady Eagles are coming off a great 2008-09 season in which they won the Atlantic Sun Conference Regular Season Championship, advanced to the second round of the Postseason WNIT (lost 88-81 in OT to eventual champ USF), and finished 26-5 overall.