Courtesy Westfield State Sports Information

The Westfield State College women's basketball team will play Muhlenberg College of Allentown, Pa., in the first round of the NCAA Division III national tournament. The first-round regional game will be played at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, on Friday, March 6, at 5:00 p.m.

In the other Friday night first round game at Bowdoin, the host college will play Castleton State of Vermont at 7:00. The Friday winners will play at Bowdoin on Saturday, March 7 at 7:00 p.m. For additional tournament information, go to www.ncaa.com.

Tickets prices will be announced on Tuesday. All three games this weekend at Bowdoin can be viewed on the internet at:

Webcast link:

http://www.bowdoin.edu/video/athletics-live.shtml

Livestats link:

http://livestats.prestosports.com/bowdoin/wbkb/basketball.html

Bowdoin (24-4) earned the right to host the first and second round regional games by capturing the NESCAC Tournament with a 49-46 victory over Amherst College. Castleton State, 17-11, upset Husson, 63-57, in the North Athletic Conference championship game to earn an automatic bid.

Muhlenberg, 24-3, won the Centennial Conference for the second straight season and the third time in the past four years. The Mules have won 10 straight and 18 of their last 19 games. The veteran team is averaging 70.4 points per game.

Westfield State has also finished strong, with victories in 13 of the last 14 games. The 22-4 Owls rolled to an 80-54 victory over Salem State in the MASCAC championship game. Westfield also won the MASCAC regular season championship with an 11-1 record.

Westfield senior Andrea Wasuk (Lenox) , the MASCAC Player of the Year, leads the conference in scoring, averaging 14.9 points per game. Senior guard Katie Sylvain (Hadley) is averaging 11.9 points and leads the conference in 3-point shooting percentage.

This will be Westfield State' s third appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Owls participated in 1995 and 1996, when their current head coach Andrea Bertini was a senior.