March 14, 2006

IRVING, Texas - Rice will make its fifth appearance in the Women's National Invitation Tournament Wednesday, March 15 as the Owls host Jackson State in the preliminary round of the prestigious postseason basketball tournament, as announced late Monday.

The Owls concluded the regular season 17-13 overall and 11-5 in Conference USA, and finished as runner-up to NCAA tournament-bound Tulsa in the C-USA championship game, 55-52. Rice won 11 of its last 13 games, including a nine-game streak before the loss to Tulsa.

Jackson State (17-13) won the regular-season Southwestern Athletic Conference title, however, the Tigers fell to Alabama State in the semifinal of the conference tournament. The team also won 11 of their final 13 contests.

Rice played in the WNIT in 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2004, advancing to the third round in 1999. This will be the first meeting of the Rice and Jackson State. The winner of this game will face Indiana University in Bloomington on Saturday, March 18.

The 2006 WNIT marks the first year of the 40-team expansion, which was done to offer more postseason opportunities to teams that won their regular-season conference title, but lost in their conference tournament and did not earn an NCAA automatic berth.

Wednesday kicks off postseason action, with preliminary-round games. Sixteen teams will play in that round, and then feed into 16 first-round games. All games are held on the campuses of participating schools, and no seeds are designated.

WNIT TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND PAIRINGS - Times TBD

Wednesday, March 15
Autry Court, Houston, Texas
Jackson State at Rice