Women's Basketball Travels to Roanoke

The EMU Women's basketball team concluded their regular season this past weekend and is gearing up for a much- anticipated ODAC tournament beginning this afternoon and concluding on Saturday.

The Lady Royals finished in fourth place in the ODAC and are matched up with number five seed Guilford for the first round of the tournament. The Royals traveled down to Roanoke, Va., for the ODAC banquet on Wednesday and will tip-off their tournament play this afternoon at 2:30 in the Salem Civic Center in Roanoke.

The Lady Royals are excited about the conference tournament and are eager to reface the Quakers of Guilford College for the third time this season. They had success both previous times they faced Guilford.

EMU hopes to use the depth of their bench to have a quick style game with constant intense defense. The team finished the regular season ranked fourth in the conference in points allowed, giving up only 59.8 points per game. They also ranked second in field goal percentage, holding their opponents to 37.5% from the field. With their stifling defense, the Lady Royals have a great opportunity to make some noise during the tournament. Being picked seventh in the preseason poll gave the team great motivation all season long to prove themselves to the rest of the conference.

On the other side of EMU's bracket, number eight seed Washington & Lee University faces first-seeded Randolph-Macon College. The winner of that game will play the winner of the Royals-Quakers' game. Game time for the semifinal round is Friday at 1 p.m. The other bracket of the tournament will feature number three seed Virginia Wesleyan against the sixth-seeded Roanoke at 6 p.m. tonight. The second game of the night will feature number two seed Bridgewater facing number seven seed Emory and Henry, at 8 p.m.

The second round of play will begin on Friday at 1 p.m. with the winner of the EMU-GC game facing the winner of the RMC-W&L game. Immediately following at 3 p.m. will be the winners from the other bracket. The ODAC Championship game will be at 2 p.m. The winner receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Lady Royals advanced to the Sweet 16 in that tournament just two seasons ago.

EMU's 2:30 p.m. game today will be broadcast over the Internet through the EMU athletics website. You can follow the Lady Royals from here on campus by going to www.emu.edu/athletics/broadcast/ and clicking on the game.