Contact:             Doug Aiken
                           (714) 997-6900

Release Date:   February 29, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

Chapman Women To Host First Round For Third Straight Year

ORANGE – The Chapman University women’s basketball team earned its fourth consecutive NCAA Division III playoff berth and will host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in a first round playoff game Wednesday, March 3. Tipoff is tentatively scheduled for 7:30 p.m., but is subject to change.

Chapman (20-4) was ranked second in the West Region by the NCAA as of February 22nd and earned a tournament bid on the strength of an 14-1 record versus West Region teams.  The Panthers only in-region loss came against their first round opponent, the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) champion Athenas, against whom they split two games this season. Claremont won the first matchup in Claremont, 71-69, but the Panthers avenged that loss with an 80-69 win at home in overtime. Claremont (21-5) earned the automatic berth into the tournament with a 66-45 win over the University of Redlands in a one-game playoff to decide the conference title. It is Claremont’s sixth SCIAC championship.

Chapman is one of 50 schools in the nation selected for the postseason tournament by the NCAA Division III and one of seven Pool ‘B’ (Independent) teams selected into the playoffs. The Panthers are 3-4 in four previous tournament appearances, including a perfect 3-0 record when hosting. Chapman best finish came in 2002 when it advanced to the “Sweet 16”. The Panthers and Athenas have never met in the postseason, but Chapman has hosted and defeated the SCIAC champs in the first round in each of the previous two seasons: Pomona-Pitzer in 2002 and La Verne in 2003.

But there is more to this pairing than a battle of two 20-game winners. As is so often the case in the coaching world, the apprentice will face the mentor in this game. Panthers’ first-year head coach Carol Jue served as an assistant under longtime Claremont head coach Jodie Burton for four years prior to her hiring at Chapman. Jue was even groomed by Burton, now in her 24th year of coaching at Claremont, to take over as interim head coach in 2002 while Burton went on sabbatical. The Panthers are led on the court by senior guard Mel Bongiorno (Stowe, Vt.), who is Chapman’s all-time leading scorer and among the top-five in Division III in scoring average with 21.9 points per game. The Athenas counter with junior forward Sarah Kolbeck (Santa Paula, Calif.), who leads Claremont in scoring (17.4 points per game) and rebounding (9.0 per game).

The Panthers, based on their high regional ranking, have also been selected to host the second round of the playoffs should they advance with a win over Claremont. The winner of Wednesday’s contest will face Northwest Conference champion University of Puget Sound (Wash.) on Saturday, March 6. The Loggers (21-4) also shared their conference championship after posting a 13-3 conference mark, matched by Whitman College (Wash.), but earned the automatic berth and first round bye on a coin flip when the conference’s tiebreaker system deadlocked. It is the second conference championship for Puget Sound.
 

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