Women's Basketball

Denison University has qualified for the 2008 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship Tournament and will face DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. in the first round on Friday (March 7) at 7 p.m. DePauw will serve as host for the four-team regional tournament with the winner advancing to take on either Washington-St. Louis or Wilmington on Saturday, March 8. 

Denison clinched a berth in this weekend's NCAA Tournament by defeating Wittenberg University in the championship game of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament on Saturday, March 1.  The win marked Denison's fourth consecutive NCAC Tournament title and ran their winning streak in conference tournament play to 12 games.

This is Denison's fifth overall berth into the NCAA Tournament.  This also marks the second consecutive season that the Big Red has been paired against the defending national champion.  Last year the Big Red upset defending champ, Hope College in the first round before bowing out in the second round to eventual national champion, DePauw.  Since 2005 the Big Red has posted a 2-3 record in NCAA Tournament play.

The Big Red enters the tournament with an 18-10 record and is led by junior post Carolyn Simpson (Dublin, Ohio/Scioto) who is averaging 12.6 ppg and 8.3 rpg.  She is coming off a 12 point, 13 rebound performance in Denison's win over Wittenberg on Saturday and has posted eight double-doubles this year.  Simpson is just 60 points away from becoming Denison's eighth member of the 1,000 career points club.

Junior guard Ellen O'Brien (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) scored 18 points to lead Denison in the NCAC title game and became the Big Red's single-season assist leader in the second half of that contest.  O'Brien leads the NCAC with 5.3 apg.  The NCAC Tournament's Most Outstanding Player was junior Sarah Perrine (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) who averaged 11.0 ppg in the tournament and scored 12 points in Denison's semifinal upset of #1 seed, Kenyon College.

Denison head coach Sara Lee is in her 19th season mentoring the Big Red.  She is the university's all-time leader in victories and has a career mark of 269-218.  The past five seasons has been the most successful run in program history.  Since 2003-04 the team has posted a record of 103-40 for a .720 winning percentage.

Seventh-ranked DePauw enters the tournament with a 25-3 record and are coming off a victory versus NCAA Tournament participant, Oglethorpe in the championship of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament on Sunday.  The Tigers are riding a 14-game winning streak and are led by sophomore Jenna Fernandez's 14.7 ppg.

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