GREENVILLE, Pa. -- Washington & Jefferson College has earned the number one seed and home court advantage throughout the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Women's Basketball Championship Tournament, which will take place February 21-26.
On February 2 the PAC announced changes to its men's and women's basketball championship tournament format in response to the challenges created by ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) protocols and the potential for a disparity in the number of regular season conference games played. The PAC, in consultation with the PAC Presidents Council and the PAC Athletic Administrators Council, modified its basketball championship tournament format by advancing all 10 men's and women's programs to their respective championship tournaments.
Eighteenth-year head coach Jina DeRubbo piloted W&J to a runner-up finish in last year's championship tournament, falling to Saint Vincent College 65-61 in the title game at the Robert S. Carey Student Center Latrobe on March 20.
W&J has appeared in four-straight championship tournament title games and own five PAC titles, with its most recent coming in 2006.
Tournament play begins Monday with a pair of play-in games. Seventh-seeded Geneva College (9-14, 8-10 PAC) will host 10th-seeded Franciscan University (1-22, 1-16 PAC), while eighth-seeded Waynesburg University (5-19, 5-13 PAC) will host ninth-seeded Thiel College (5-16, 3-12 PAC).
In Tuesday's quarterfinal round, top-seeded W&J (20-4, 17-1 PAC) will host the No. 8 Waynesburg-No. 9 Thiel winner while second-seeded Westminster College (16-8, 13-5 PAC) will host the No. 7 Geneva-No. 10 Franciscan winner. Third-seeded Grove City College (16-8, 13-5 PAC) will host No. 6 Saint Vincent College (8-13, 7-10 PAC) while No. 4 Chatham University (17-8, 11-7 PAC) will host No. 5 Bethany College (14-10, 9-8 PAC).
In Thursday's semifinal round, the winner of the No. 8/No. 9 and No. 1 quarterfinal will face the winner of the No. 4/No. 5 quarterfinal while the winner of No. 7/No. 10 and No. 2 quarterfinal will take on the winner of the No. 3/No. 6 quarterfinal.
This year's title game is slated for Saturday, February 26. The title game will be hosted by the highest seed remaining after Thursday's semifinal round.
Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students. PAC and institutional passes are not accepted at PAC Championship events. Students from PAC host institutions will be admitted for free with a valid college ID.
The winner of the PAC's Championship Tournament will receive the league's automatic qualifying bid to this year's Division III Championship Tournament. Forty-four conferences have been granted automatic qualification to this year's 64-team championship. The selected Division III Championship teams as well as the first and second round site selections will be announced Monday, February 28 at 2:30 p.m. (EST) on ncaa.com. First and second round games are scheduled for Friday-Saturday, March 4-5.
The PAC and SportsPITTSBURGH will host the Division III Women's Basketball national semifinals and national championship March 17 and 19 at Duquesne University's UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh.
