From UNI Athletics
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The UNI Women’s basketball team received an at-large bid to the WNIT. The Panthers will play Dayton on Friday at 11 a.m. as part of the Rockford region. Pregame is at 10:45 a.m. on KXEL.
The WNIT bid is UNI’s 10th postseason appearance in the past 11 seasons, not including last year’s postseason that was cut short due to the pandemic. It is the Panthers’ ninth WNIT appearance overall.
The Panthers are 14-12 on the season and finished 11-7 in Missouri Valley Conference play. They face Dayton who is 14-3 overall and won the regular-season Atlantic-10 title before falling to VCU in the A-10 semifinals. It will be the first-ever meeting between the programs in school history.
This year’s event will start with eight teams each at four regional sites — Charlotte, NC; Fort Worth, TX; Memphis, TN; and Rockford, IL. First-round play begins Friday, March 19; Round 2 is March 20, and Round 3 is March 22. The four regional champions will advance to the Memphis site, with the semifinals tipping off March 26 and the championship game set for March 28.
All games will be available via streaming through FloHoops. Every team will get at least two games in this year’s event. The Panthers will face either Creighton or Bowling Green in the second round.
This is the 23rd year for the Postseason WNIT and the first year the event has bracketed only 32 teams since 2006, as tournament officials pared the event back because of COVID-19 issues.
This year’s tournament features four teams from the Atlantic 10 and three teams each from the Big East, Missouri Valley and SEC. Five conferences placed two each — American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Pac-12.
