The NCAA News - News and Features

March 2, 1998

Division III Women's Basketball

St. Benedict seeks first trophy

Event: 1998 Division III Women's Basketball Championship.

Overview: St. Benedict remains the lone undefeated team in the Division III ranks. The Blazers look to make their 10th tournament appearance and hope this will be their year to win the championship .... With an undefeated record against Division III opponents and a overtime upset of defending national champion New York University, Binghamton also looks to bring home a title before moving to the Division II ranks next season. The Colonials are led by a trio of seniors who have played in three straight NCAA tournaments. Guards Stephanie Rom and Cathy Mackin, along with forward Alicia Koppenhoefer, help the team outscore opponents by more than 20 points a game .... Wisconsin-Oshkosh won the title in 1996 and appears to be a strong contender this year with its 20-1 record. Senior Holly Spoo leads Wisconsin-Oshkosh with 15.1 points per game .... Washington (Missouri) has a 20-3 record and has won 12 consecutive home games. The Bears are led by senior center Alia Fischer, who averages 20.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game .... Southern Maine (20-2) clinched its 11th Little East Conference regular-season title. The Huskies extended to 18 their NCAA record of consecutive seasons with 20 or more victories .... Other contenders: Johns Hopkins, William Paterson, Mount Union, St. Thomas (Minnesota) and Mississippi College.

Field: Forty-eight teams; six in each region. Twenty-five conferences have been granted automatic qualification. The remaining teams will be selected at large.

Dates and sites: First- and second-round competition will be March 4 and 7 at on-campus sites. Sectional competition will be March 13-14 on the campuses of competing schools. The semifinals, third-place game and final will be March 20-21 on the campus of one of the competing teams.

Information/results: The Fax-on-Demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1273 for the bracket/schedule, 5068 for semifinal box scores, 5069 for third-place game box score and 5070 for championship game results. Game scores and pairings also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. First- and second-round scores will appear in the March 16 issue of The NCAA News. Sectional results will be published March 23. Results from the semifinal, third-place and championship games will be in the March 30 issue of the News.