Utah Valley women’s basketball has been chosen to participate in the 28th annual Postseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT), according to a March 15 announcement from Triple Crown Sports. The tournament, featuring a field of 48 teams, will begin play on Thursday, March 19, with the full bracket set to be released on Monday.
This marks the second consecutive season that Utah Valley will compete in postseason play, which is the first time in its Division I era that the program has reached back-to-back postseasons. Last year, Utah Valley earned its first-ever postseason victory with a win over Air Force before narrowly losing to Washington State.
The Wolverines have already faced and defeated four teams included in this year’s WNIT field: Abilene Christian, Air Force, Pepperdine, and Southern Utah. The tournament includes both automatic qualifiers and at-large selections from conferences across the country.
Sarah Sullivan, WNIT director, said, “Our longstanding belief has always been that women’s college basketball demanded the respect that comes with a genuine postseason challenge outside the standard tournament. For more than a generation, we’ve been there to celebrate the determination and hard work of players, coaches, and staff that helped make the sport so great. Others have tried to copy our model, but for pure excitement and the kind of competitive environment that lifts programs higher, the Postseason WNIT set the standard before the turn of the century.”
Triple Crown Sports is based in Fort Collins and has produced youth, high school and college events for more than four decades. In addition to running the Postseason WNIT basketball event each spring, Triple Crown also produces other collegiate tournaments such as the men’s and women’s Cancun Challenge and volleyball’s NIVC event.
