NCAA Tournament Opening Tip Overview
-Making a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance for the first time in school history, the second-seeded Edinboro women's basketball team faces No. 7 California (Pa.) in the Atlantic Regional First Round Friday at 2:30 p.m.

-Edinboro has earned its ninth NCAA bid in school history. The Fighting Scots are 4-4 in first round games and 7-8 all-time in NCAA Tournament games. The Fighting Scots advanced to last year's NCAA Atlantic Regional Championship Game before falling to eventual national champion Shaw.

-The Fighting Scots will attempt to record at least one NCAA Tournament win in back-to-back seasons for just the second time in school history (1997, 1998).

-First round foe California (Pa.) and Edinboro have never previously met in the NCAA Tournament, but have a long history with each other. The Fighting Scots are 41-32 all-time against the Vulcans.

-Of the seven other teams comprising the Atlantic Regional, Edinboro has met only Bloomsburg (1-0), IUP (1-0) and Shaw (0-2) previously in the NCAA Tournament.

-Under head coach Stan Swank, Edinboro has reached the final 32 three times, the Sweet 16 twice and Elite Eight once.

IN THE RANKINGS
Five of the eight teams in this week's Atlantic Regional are ranked inside the latest WBCA USA TODAY Sports Top 25. Gannon leads the way at No. 7 while first round opponents Shaw (No. 14) and Glenville State (No. 15) are back-to-back in the rankings. Edinboro slips one spot to No. 19 this week and PSAC champion Bloomsburg re-enters at No. 23 after defeating nationally-ranked Edinboro and Gannon in back-to-back nights to take the conference title. In all, seven of the eight regional squads received votes in the latest poll - both Fairmont State and Indiana (Pa.) were among the teams receiving votes in this week's rankings.

SETTING UP THE REGIONAL
-During the regular season, the Fighting Scots posted a 6-4 record against teams in the Atlantic Regional, facing California (2-0), Gannon (1-1), IUP (3-0), Bloomsburg (0-2) and Glenville State (0-1).

-The Atlantic Regional is comprised of five PSAC teams, two WVIAC teams and one CIAA team.

-Two of the top scoring teams in the nation are in the Atlantic Region – Glenville State is the highest-scoring team in the country at 95.3 points per game and Shaw ranks fourth at 78.6 points per night. Both teams rely on team efforts offensively as neither team has a player ranking in the top 20 scorers in the nation.

-Glenville State's Ginny Mills is the highest scorer in the Atlantic Regional for the season – the junior averages 18.3 points per game. Edinboro's Kiara Brown is next at 17.8 ppg, followed by Fairmont State's Kaitlin Snyder (17.3 ppg) and Shaw's Ronika Ransford (15.5 ppg).

-IUP has been the strongest team in the regional defensively this season statistically speaking, allowing an Atlantic Regional-best 55.7 points per game on the year.
 
-This is the fourth straight Atlantic Regional to be held in northwest Pennsylvania as either Gannon or Edinboro has earned hosting rights as the top seed in each of those years. Edinboro served as the top seed and hosted the last two regionals. This year's regional returns to Gannon for the first time since 2010 when the Golden Knights won the regional.

-Third-seeded Shaw and No. 5 Bloomsburg are used to comfortable victories - Shaw has a scoring margin of +14.9 on the year, 15th in the nation. Bloomsburg is even more impressive - the Huskies are winning their games by an avergae of 18.2 points per contest, fifth-best in Division II.

-Defending champion Shaw has by far the furthest distance to travel, trekking from Raleigh, N.C. to Erie. The Lady Bears are also the only team unfamiliar with the rest of the bracket as the only team not to have faced another Atlantic Regional squad this season.
-Three players return from last season's Atlantic Regional All-Tournament Team: Edinboro's Kiara Brown and Samantha Blazetic along with IUP's Sarah Pastorek.

-The Atlantic Regional champion advances to play the Midwest Regional champion in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in San Antonio, Texas which runs from March 26-29.

BORO SEEKS ANOTHER TOURNAMENT RUN
Edinboro put together a magical run last season, advancing to an NCAA regional final for the first time since 1997. The Fighting Scots earned the top seed and hosting rights with a 28-1 record and their second consecutive PSAC Championship. The Fighting Scots won their first 24 games of the season and charged as high as second in the national Top 25 during the year as part of an impressive tournament resume. In the first round, Edinboro avoided an upset from eighth-seeded West Chester, winning a hard-fought battle. The Golden Rams trailed by 14 points at halftime, but closed to within two with 3:25 to play before the Boro finally closed the door for a 64-59 win. In the semifinal, Edinboro forced fifth-seeded Indiana (Pa.) into 24 turnovers on its way to a 70-56 win and a spot in the Atlantic Regional Championship Game. There, Edinboro ran into second-seeded Shaw for a second straight season. After being dominated the year before in the first round as No. 8 Shaw upset the Fighting Scots on its way a regional title, Edinboro led early in the re-match. A 28-24 Edinboro lead at halftime would not hold, however, and the Lady Bears roared back in the second half for a 70-53 win to capture the regional championship for the second straight year. Shaw would win the national championship a week later. Edinboro graduated three seniors from last year's starting lineup – forwards Renee' Brown and Micki Cerchiaro as well as guard Raven Metz.

WE MEET AGAIN
Friday's first round will see Edinboro and Cal U battle for the third time this season. Edinboro defeated the Vulcans in both regular season dates – taking a 70-51 win on the road on Dec. 8 before finishing the sweep with a 60-41 home victory on Feb. 6. The Edinboro defense limited Cal to anemic shooting percentages in both games – 26.2 percent in the first meeting (16-for-61) and 19 percent (12-for-63) in the second game. Though the schools have never met in the NCAA Tournament, they have a fairly extensive post-season history through the PSAC Tournament. Cal owns a 3-2 edge in post-season meetings, though Edinboro defeated the Vulcans in 2011 and 2012, including a 75-58 win in the 2011 PSAC Championship Game.

WHAT BROWN CAN DO FOR YOU
Kiara Brown will have a little added incentive when Edinboro plays Cal in Friday's first round. Brown played her freshman season at Cal before transferring to Edinboro for the 2010-11 campaign. In the eight games Brown has played against her former squad she has been tremendous, averaging 17.1 points and 2.9 assists per game. The Fighting Scots are 8-0 vs. the Vulcans with Brown on the roster.
 
THERE'S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING...
Throughout the history of the Edinboro women's basketball program, there are just four current Division II schools the Fighting Scots have played at least twice but never beaten – should Edinboro get past California in the first round, it would play one of those teams in the regional semifinal. The Edinboro-Cal winner will face the team that advances from the Shaw-Glenville State match-up. Edinboro has never beaten either of those teams, going 0-2 vs. Shaw and 0-3 vs. Glenville State.

AIGNEE SEEKS AN ENCORE
PSAC West Freshman of the Year Aignee Freeland put together the finest performance of her young career in her first game against California (Pa.) on Dec. 8. Freeland was dominating, posting a career-best 18 points with eight rebounds in the Boro win. In the second meeting, Freeland was strong again, just missing a double-double with 10 points and nine boards.

BORO QUICK HITS
>Edinboro was defeated, 76-73, in its last time out at Bloomsburg last Saturday in the PSAC semifinals. When the Fighting Scots take the floor in Friday's NCAA Tournament First Round, they will attempt to keep a very impressive streak alive. It has been over three years since Edinboro last lost back-to-back games – the last time it happened was when the Scots lost three straight between Feb. 17-24, 2010. Edinboro has played 92 games since then without losing consecutive contests.

>Senior All-American guard Kiara Brown stands as the PSAC's regular season scoring champion at 17.3 points per game to lead all conference players. The last Edinboro player to lead the conference in scoring was Marin Hightower in 2000 (23.6 ppg). Brown saw her scoring average rise to 17.8 points per game with her 22-point performance on Saturday.

>Junior Darche' Jackson has played some of her finest games in the post-season and continued that trend with her season-high 22 points on Tuesday vs. IUP. The total fell just shy of her career-best of 24 points scored two years earlier to the day – March 5, 2011, in Edinboro's PSAC Championship win over Cal U.

>Edinboro has played just one game on a neutral floor this season, defeating West Liberty at Glenville State, 90-71, in its season-opener. Shaw has the best neutral court record of the field at 5-0, Fairmont State is 3-0 on neutral courts, Glenville State is 2-1 and IUP is 1-0. Neither Bloomsburg nor Cal U have played on neutral floors this season. Hosting Gannon, meanwhile, is a perfect 13-0 on its home floor this year.

>For the second straight year, the Fighting Scots are among the PSAC's leaders in steals with 333 for an average of 11.9 per game, good for fifth in the conference. The Fighting Scots have forced 847 steals the past two seasons.

SENIOR CLASS TO REMEMBER
The Fighting Scots boast a much younger lineup in this year's NCAA Tournament than the past two seasons, but they remain led by a group of seniors. This season's three seniors – forward/center Samantha Blazetic (Eastlake, OH/Eastlake North), guard Kiara Brown (Ambridge, Pa./Ambridge) and guard Kerry Connolly (McKees Rocks, Pa./Sto-Rox) won't be soon forgotten once they graduate. The trio has helped lead the Boro to its most successful four-year period in school history with a record of 94-24 over that span. Included in the success are a pair of PSAC championships, the first class in Edinboro history to ever capture two conference titles, and three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, also a first for any graduating class.