Bracket | Championship Central

WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State University's women's basketball team will play at Montclair (N.J.) State University in the opening round of the 2017 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament on Friday, March 3.

Westfield, 19-8 overall this season, earned an automatic bid to the tournament by virtue of winning the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament.

Montclair is 25-2 this season, and earned its automatic bid to the tourney by winning its fifth straight New Jersey Athletic Conference title.  The Red Hawks were ranked 15^th in the nation in the most recent D3Hoops.com poll.

Westfield State is in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time overall and second year in a row, having been selected in 1995, 1996, 2009, and 2015.   Westfield lost to Bowdoin (Me.) College, 75-49 in last year's opening round game.

Montclair will be making its seventh NCAA Tournament appearance and fourth consecutive. The Red Hawks played in the Final Four in 2015.

The two teams have met twice in the past, with Montclair topping Westfield both times.  The Owls lost by a 58-50 count in the Montclair Tournament in the 1988-89, and the Red Hawks took a 73-62 decision from the Owls in San Juan, Puerto Rico in December of 2013.

The other two teams in the Montclair pod are UMass-Dartmouth and LaRoche (Pa.).  The winners of Friday's games will meet Saturday in Montclair for the right to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

Courtesy of Westfield State Sports Information