Lady Pioneers Heading to Nationals
Posted: Feb 23, 2015

Lady Pioneers Heading to Nationals

The Alfred State women's basketball has earned the #7 seed for the USCAA Division I National Championships next week. The team will face off with #2 Iowa Wesleyan in their first round match-up on March 4th.

This will be the first time that the women's basketball program will participate in a national championship tournament. They become the fourth women's program, and fifth overall, to qualify for a USCAA National Championship event this school year.

The Lady Pioneers are led by a trio of seniors, Haley Witchella (Oxford), Destiny Brito (Manhattan/Park West), and Briana Meehan (Whitesville). Witchella, the Alfred State women's basketball all-time leading scorer, is in the top five of eight statistical categories in the USCAA including rebounds per game (1st - 14.1) and points per game (20.5). Brito is the sparkplug for the team. She is leads the USCAA with 141 assists. On top of the assists she has grabbed 168 rebounds and has 67 steals. Meehan has connected on 58 three-pointers and is the teams 2nd leading scorer (12 ppg).

Iowa Wesleyan is currently 17-6 on the year and are on a eight-game winning streak (they have one final regular season contest on Tuesday evening). The Tigers are led by Karla Vietinghoff's 16.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. Whitney Godden is averaging 10.6 points per game and Rachel Williams chips in 10 points per game.

Alfred State is averaging 65.7 points per game while allowing 54.2. Iowa Wesleyan averages 65.5 points and allows 57.0.

In other first round match-ups:

  • Defending USCAA DI champion Concordia-Alabama is the #1 seed and will take #8 Indiana University-South Bend or St. Joseph's (Brooklyn) College. 
  • #4 Apprentice takes on #5 Daemen
  • #3 Berea battles #6 St. Mary's of the Woods.

The winner of the Alfred State - Iowa Wesleyan contest will take on the winner of the Berea-St. Mary's of the Woods contest in the semifinals.

The USCAA Tournament will be held on the campus of Penn State Fayette in Uniontown, PA from March 3-7. For more information on the tournament visit the tournament homepage.