UAA women to take on Hawaii Pacific in NCAA Tournament

It’s Shark week for the UAA women’s basketball team.

The Seawolves on Sunday learned who their opponent will be Friday in the NCAA Division II West Region tournament in LaJolla, California – the Sharks of Hawaii Pacific.

Tipoff time will be announced later in the week.

UAA (28-2) is the No. 3 seed and Hawaii Pacific (23-8) is the No. 6 seed in the eight-team regional tournament hosted by top-seeded UC San Diego (29-0).

This is the 18th time in school history and the 12th time in 13 seasons the Seawolves have qualified for the 64-team NCAA Tournament. UAA has won the West Region four times, in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2016.

Friday’s game will be the second this season between the Seawolves and the Sharks. UAA took a 65-54 homecourt win on Nov. 24.

UAA is on the same side of the bracket as Northwest Nazarene (28-2), which ended UAA’s 21-game winning streak Saturday by taking a 70-64 win in the championship game of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament.

If UAA and NNU both win Friday – NNU plays seventh-seeded Humboldt State (19-7) – they’ll meet in a Saturday semifinal game. It would be the third meeting in 17 days between the teams. On Feb. 28, UAA beat the Nighthawks 64-55 in a regular-season game.

The other side of the bracket will pit UC San Diego against No. 8 Dominican (21-6) and fourth-seeded Azusa Pacific (25-5) against fifth-seeded Cal Poly Pomona (25-5).

The winner of the championship game will advance to the March 26-29 Elite Eight in Columbus, Ohio.