Women's Tournament Returns to Chase Arena

The Hartford Hawks will try to secure their second consecutive NCAA tournament appearance as they head into this week’s America East championship. The Hartford women enter the 9-team America East tournament as the No. 1 seed, their best-ever regular season finish.

The Hawks ended the regular season in impressive fashion on Saturday with a 77-61 win over Boston University. With that victory, the team set a school record of 23 overall wins and 15 conference wins in the regular season.


Tournament Starts Thursday
The 2006 Friendship Cottage Cheese America East Women’s Basketball Championship will take place on the University of Hartford campus from Thursday, March 9, through Sunday, March 12, marking the fifth consecutive year that Hartford is hosting the tournament. All games will be played at the Chase Arena in the Reich Family Pavilion (Sports Center).

The Hartford women will play their first game of the tournament on Friday at 6 p.m.

Hartford Head Coach Jennifer Rizzotti and her players are hoping to defend their 2005 America East title and receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. If they succeed, it would be the Hawks' second consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament, and their third in the past five years.

The America East tournament will get under way with a first-round game on Thursday, March 9, at 7 p.m. Quarterfinal games will take place on Friday, March 10; two games will be played during the afternoon session, beginning at noon, and two games will be played during the evening session, beginning at 6 p.m.

The winners of Friday's quarterfinal contests will advance to the semifinals on Saturday, March 11. There will be two semifinal games, beginning at 1 p.m. If the Hawks make it to the semifinals, they will play in the second game, at approximately 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

The championship will be decided in a 2 p.m. game on Sunday, March 12.


Ticket Information
Tickets to all games are now on sale. University of Hartford students can attend all tournament games in which the Hawks play for FREE, courtesy of the Office of Student Affairs and the President’s Office. Students can pick up their free tickets Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the Athletics Box Office. Be sure to bring your student ID.

Tickets can be purchased for any individual session or for the entire tournament. Single session ticket prices range from $4 to $11 for youths and from $8 to $18 for adults. For tickets or information, stop by the Athletics Box Office in the Reich Family Pavilion, call the box office at 860.768.4295, or order tickets online at www.hartfordhawks.com.


Following the Games
If you want to follow the action but you can't attend the tournament, you can still keep up with the Hawks. Any games in which the Hartford women play will be broadcast live on WWUH radio (91.3 FM) or www.wwuh.org.

Both the semifinal and championship round games will be televised live on FOX Sports New England.

In addition, you can get live statistics for all the tournament games on the America East website, at www.americaeast.com.