PORTLAND, Ore. – After officially making the tournament on Sunday, University of Portland women's basketball will be hosting the Colorado State Rams in the opening round of the 2022 Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT). The two teams will face off on Friday, March 18 at 7 p.m. at the Chiles Center. Kids and UP students will receive free admission, while tickets start at just $5 for the general public. Visit www.portlandpilots.com/postseason to secure your seats today.

The Pilots were officially selected to the 64-team field this past Sunday for the third time in program history. This is the first time Portland has ever hosted a game for the WNIT. The Pilots have played a WNIT game in Portland before back in 2009, but they played that game against Portland State in Viking Pavilion. The Pilots have been invited to 10 postseason tournaments including this year's WNIT, but have only officially played in eight tournaments with the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Tournament.

Portland head coach Michael Meek has led the Pilots to a postseason appearance in each of his three years at the helm, being the only coach in program history to do so in his first three years. The Pilots earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship in 2020 after making a miraculous run to win the WCC Tournament, but the national tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pilots also made their deepest run in any postseason event at the Division I level last season when they advanced to the finals of the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) before losing to the Cleveland State Vikings 67-64 in the championship.

The WNIT is a 64-team tournament for teams who experienced strong seasons but did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The WNIT will start on Wednesday, March 16 and run until the championship on Saturday, April 2. First round games will be hosted by individual teams.

The Pilots finished the season 19-10 overall and 8-7 in WCC regular season play, finishing fourth in the conference. That record was their best through 29 games since the 1997-98 season. This is the second time in Meek's three years that the Pilots have finished in the top five of the conference.

The Rams finished the season 21-11 and made their way to the Mountain West Conference Tournament Championship before falling to the UNLV Runnin' Rebels. They finished the regular season sixth in the Mountain West with a 9-9 conference record. McKenna Hofschild averaged 16.8 points and 6.5 assists per game, good for second and first in the conference respectively. This is the 16th time the Rams have made the WNIT.

Portland had several standout individual performers over the course of the season. Alex Fowler was named to the All-WCC First Team for the third year in a row, becoming just the third Pilot in school history to achieve that honor and the second to do so in consecutive years. Fowler finished fourth in the conference in points per game at 17.4 and rebounds at 7.8 and led the WCC in field-goal percentage at 54.1%. She also became the sixth Pilot in program history to score 1,500 points in her career, ranking sixth all-time at 1,535.

Haylee Andrews also made the All-WCC Second Team despite a season-ending knee injury. She led the WCC in assists per game at 5.7 and also finished 10^th in total assists. Lucy Cochrane earned All-WCC honorable mention after breaking the school record for blocks in a season at 110. She currently leads the nation in blocks per game at 4.1.

Stay tuned to PortlandPilots.com to get more information on how to follow the Pilots in the WNIT.

Portland Women's Basketball Postseason History (NCAA)

• 1994 NCAA Tournament (1st Round Loss to USC – 77-62)
• 1995 NCAA Tournament (1st Round Loss to Purdue – 74-59)
• 1996 NCAA Tournament (1st Round Loss to Texas Tech – 61-78)
• 1997 NCAA Tournament (1st Round Loss to Michigan State – 75-70 (OT))
• 1999 WNIT (1st Round Loss to Washington – 67-63)
• 2009 WNIT (1st Round Loss to Portland State – 57-51)
• 2010 WBI (1st Round Loss to Washington – 44-75)
• 2020 NCAA Tournament (Canceled due to COVID-19)
• 2021 WBI (Championship Loss to Cleveland State – 67-64)
• 2022 WNIT (1st Round matchup against Colorado State – TBD)