Rematch Against Nebraska-Kearney Awaits UMD Women’s Basketball Team at Regionals

Tip-off between the Bulldogs and the Lopers is set for Friday at noon on the campus of Fort Hays State in Kansas.

DULUTH, Minn. – This week, the UMD women’s basketball team is getting set for its fourth straight trip to the NCAA tournament.

For the upperclassmen on the roster, it’s become the standard for the team, so the week of practice isn’t as tense as it would’ve been in years past.

“I think now, it kind of is that “business as usual” type feel. Maybe when we were younger, it was more like, ‘oh my gosh, this is amazing. We made it’. And now we’ve been there a couple years. So it’s not something that we should be nervous for. We’ve been here before. It’s fun. It’s bonus time. And so I think it’s definitely gonna help us,” said senior guard Payton Kahl.

The Bulldogs will open up the regional tournament against Nebraska-Kearney, the team that eliminated UMD last season. So avenging that loss will be on the minds of the Bulldogs.

“Anytime you go to play somebody new in a different league that you’ve never seen in person, I think there can be challenges to that. They’re actually a lot like us defensively. Offensively, they run ball screens on like every single possession but on defense, they do very very similar things that we do. So it’ll be familiar,” head coach Mandy Pearson said.

Tip-off between the Bulldogs and the Lopers is set for Friday at noon on the campus of Fort Hays State in Kansas.