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After putting together one of the best seasons in its history, the Oregon State women’s basketball team was rewarded for its efforts on Monday evening when the Beavers were selected to make their sixth-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. OSU, the region’s No. 9 seed, will travel to Seattle to take on No. 8 Middle Tennessee in the first round on Sunday, March 23 at 5 p.m. No. 1 seed South Carolina (27-4) and No. 16 Cal State Northridge (18-14) will meet in the other first round matchup with the winners of the two games meeting on Tuesday, March 25. All games of the Women’s Basketball Championship will air on ESPN networks. Oregon State (23-10), which advanced to three consecutive NCAA Tournament beginning in 1994, had not heard its name called since 1996. Through the completion of the 2013 NCAA Tournament, 254 schools had earned bids in their histories. Of that group, OSU was one of 33 that had not been to the Big Dance since 1996. The Beavers also participated in the NCAA Tournament in 1983 and 1984. This will be the Beavers’ first NCAA Tournament appearance on the West Coast since playing games in Salem, Ore. and Los Angeles, Calif. in 1983. OSU went 2-1 at the Pac-12 Tournament at KeyArena in the Emerald City from March 7-9 and earlier this year scored a 77-57 win over Washington at Alaska Airlines Arena on Feb. 23, the same venue where it will meet Middle Tennessee (29-4). Oregon State has never played the Blue Raiders.
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The Oregon women’s basketball team will play host to Pacific in the first round of the WNIT at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Matthew Knight Arena, the tournament announced Monday evening. The Ducks (15-15) will meet the Tigers (18-12) in the first round, with the winner of the Washington and Hawai’i game in Seattle waiting in the second round. The site of a potential second round game is TBA.
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Oregon State senior pitcher Amanda Najdek has been named Pac-12 Conference Pitcher of the Week, the conference office announced Monday. Najdek shut down a high-powered Arizona State offense to help the Beavers to a pair of wins and a series victory over the No. 5/7 Sun Devils. The senior threw complete games in both of her starts, holding ASU to just a single earned run in each outing. She opened the weekend by allowing just six hits and recording six strikeouts in the first game, a 3-2 victory for the Beavers. Najdek then came back with another gem on Sunday, allowing just one run on seven hits for a 3-1 win. Overall, she held a Sun Devil offense that entered the series averaging nearly seven runs per game to just three total runs over the course of her two starts. The honor is the first of Najdek’s career, and the 36th in Oregon State history.