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Lady Crusaders face Lee University in first round of NAIA-I Women's National Tournament
March 12, 2009
Contact: Ed Beach, Evangel University Athletics, (417) 865-2815, ext. 7417
Springfield, Mo. — The Evangel Lady Crusaders will face fifth ranked Lee University in the first round of the NAIA-I Women’s National Championship Tournament. Evangel will play their opening round game on Thursday, March 19 at 12:30 p.m. at Oman Arena in Jackson, Tennessee.
Evangel enters the tournament with a 21-10 record and qualified for the national tournament with an automatic bid by winning the Heart of America conference regular season championship. This is the Lady Crusaders’ inaugural season in NAIA-I after 17 years as a NAIA-II member. Evangel has appeared in seven NAIA-II National Tournaments and has a national tournament record of 12-7 including two appearances in the Final Four (1996 and 2005).
The Lee University Flames are 28-5 and champions of the Southern States Athletics Conference. The Cleveland, Tennessee based college will make their sixth appearance in the NAIA-I National Tournament. Included among the Lady Flames 28 wins is a victory over the NAIA-I number one ranked team, Union (Tenn.) University. Lee knocked off Union 88-72 on Dec. 13 in what remains as Union’s only loss of the season so far.
The Lady Crusaders are seeded 7th among an 8-team field as the national bracket consists of four 8-team quadrants. Lee University is seeded 2nd on the bracket. A complete version of the 32-team national bracket can be found on the NAIA’s website:
http://naia.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/031209aaa.html
The winner of the Evangel-Lee game would face the winner of the Biola (Calif.)-Trevecca Nazarene (Tenn.) match-up Friday at 2:15 p.m.
Each Evangel game in the NAIA-I Women’s National Tournament will be carried live on Springfield radio station ESPN 1400 AM and a free Internet live audio broadcast through www.allinbroadcasting.com.