Sunday, March 10, 2013

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - GNAC champion Western Washington and Simon Fraser are the top two seeds for the NCAA Division II Women's West Regionals which begin Saturday at Sam Carver Gymnasium in Bellingham.

The women's regional will be played in conjunction with the men's regional which begins Friday with four quarterfinal contests.

The Vikings (25-3) will play eighth-seed Academy of Art (23-8) from the PacWest Conference in the opening round.  Tipoff will be at 7:30 p.m. 

Simon Fraser (23-5) will face Northwest Nazarene (20-8) in its first-ever NCAA Division II playoff game.  That game will tipoff at 2:30 p.m.

The other first round games will match third-seed UC San Diego from the CCAA and sixth-seed Grand Canyon from the PacWest (noon) and fourth-seed Chico State and fifth-seed Cal State Monterey Bay (5 p.m.).  Both of those teams are from the CCAA.

Saturday's winners advance to the semifinals at noon and 5 p.m. on Monday.  The championship game will be played Tuesday at 6 p.m.

The three GNAC qualifying teams won five of six games with the other qualifiers during the regular-season.

Western Washington, which has won eight straight games, defeated UC San Diego 69-51 on Nov. 17 at Carver Gym and Grand Canyon 72-68 in overtime on Dec. 19 in Las Vegas, but lost at Chico State 75-74 on Dec. 17.

Simon Fraser beat both Grand Canyon 69-60 and UC San Diego 61-58 in the Disney Tipoff Class at Anaheim on Nov. 9 and Nov. 12.  Northwest Nazarene beat Academy of Art 66-62 Nov. 23 at Nampa.

The regional winner qualifies for the NCAA Elite Eight which begins March 26 at San Antonio, Tex.

NCAA WOMEN'S WEST REGIONAL (Mar. 16-19 at Bellingham): Saturday - #3 UC San Diego (22-10) vs. #6 Grand Canyon (22-8), noon; #2 Simon Fraser (23-5) vs. #7 Northwest Nazarene (20-8), 2:30 p.m.; #4 Chico State (23-5) vs. #5 CSU Monterey Bay (19-8), 5 p.m.; #1 Western Washington (25-3) vs. #8 Academy of Art (23-8), 7:30 p.m.  Monday – Semifinals at noon and 5 p.m.  Tuesday – Championship game at 6 p.m.

NCAA MEN'S WEST REGIONALS (Mar. 15-19 at Bellingham): Friday - #3 Seattle Pacific (25-3) vs. #6 Grand Canyon (23-7), noon; #2 Cal Poly Pomona (27-2) vs. #7 Chico State (19-10), 2:30 p.m.; #4 Dixie State (22-6) vs. #5 Cal State San Bernardino (19-8), 5 p.m.; #1 Western Washington (27-2) vs. #8 Chaminade (20-9), 7:30 p.m.  Monday - Semifinals at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.  Tuesday - Championship game at 8:30 p.m.