After Early Exit in Previous Years, UMD Women’s Basketball Wants More at NCAA Tourney

In recent years, UMD has struggled to get out of the first round. Only advancing to the 2nd round once in their last four appearances.

DULUTH, Minn.- The UMD women’s basketball team is preparing to host their first ever NCAA regional at Romano Gym this weekend.

Besides being the host, the Bulldogs have a game to play against Southern Nazarene, the winners of the Great American Conference.

In recent years, UMD has struggled to get out of the first round. Only advancing to the 2nd round once in their last four appearances.

Head Coach Mandy Pearson says her team has made some strides in recent weeks and that needs to continue moving forward.

“What we saw in the tournament is I thought we took a huge jump from our last weekend even to the NSIC tournament. If we can figure out a way to take that energy and bring it into the regional tournament, improving on everything that we’re doing. Playing with that energy and competing the way that we did, those are some things that we would need to do to be successful and make a run,” said Pearson.

Pearson will turn to her two graduate leaders Brooke Olson and Maesyn Thiesen to help the Bulldogs adjust to tournament play.

“You know kind of having those fresh eyes and not really knowing what those next few rounds feel like. I feel like that’s what we want, that’s what we’re striving for. I’m really hoping we rise to the occasion and hopefully just win some games. I mean we have a really tough region and so any team that comes around it’s going to be a battle,” said Olson.

“I think we’re just having a lot of fun this year. We’re really trusting each other and trusting our strengths from each person and using those to make the team better. I think we’re coming together at the right time and using each other to motivate us to hopefully play a lot more games for the rest of the season,” added Thiesen.

UMD will tip things off with Southern Nazarene at 5 PM on Friday.