March 1, 2010

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- One week after concluding the regular season against each other, the Navy and Colgate women's basketball teams will meet once again in the quarterfinal round of the Patriot League Tournament.

The complete tournament bracket featuring pairings and start times was announced Monday morning by the league office.

The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the 2010 Patriot League Women's Basketball Tournament will be held at the Hart Center on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. The four quarterfinal round games will be played on Saturday, March 6, with the two semifinal games to be contested on Sunday, March 7.

Subscribers to Navy All-Access will be able to receive an audio and video stream of every Navy men's and women's basketball game that is played in the tournament. Meanwhile, Patriot League All-Access subscribers will receive an audio and video stream of each game played in both the men's and women's tournaments.

Navy's game Saturday against Colgate can also be heard locally on WNAV-AM 1430.

The first quarterfinal game of the day (12 Noon) will feature No. 4 Army (5-9) facing tournament-host and No. 5 seed Holy Cross (5-9). Top-seeded Lehigh (13-1) will then begin its quest for a second consecutive league crown when it faces No. 8 Bucknell (3-11) in the second game of the day (2:30 p.m.).

Play in the other half of the bracket starts at 5 p.m. when second-seeded American (13-1) faces No. 7 Lafayette (4-10). The day ends with the No. 3 Mids taking on the No. 6 Raiders at 7:30 p.m.

The winners of the first two quarterfinal round games will play Sunday at 1 p.m., with the winners from Navy's half of the bracket playing in Sunday's second semifinal starting at 3:30 p.m.

The championship game of the tournament will be played on Saturday, March 14 at the home of the highest-seeded team appearing in the game.

Navy and Colgate split the regular season series this year, with the home team winning both games. The Raiders posted a 56-54 victory over the Mids on Jan. 30 in Hamilton, N.Y., while Navy won a 69-50 decision over Colgate this past Saturday night in Alumni Hall.

Saturday's game will mark the fourth meeting between the two teams in the Patriot League Tournament, with each of the four games taking place in the quarterfinal round of the championship. Navy won a 72-46 decision over Colgate in the 1998 tournament, as well as a 60-59 contest the very next year. Just like this season, the Mids were the No. 3 seed in the 1999 championship and the Raiders were the sixth-seeded team. The most recent postseason game between the programs took place in 2006 when Colgate recorded a 60-55 victory over Navy.

Navy's No. 3 seed this year marks the first time the Mids have been seeded in the top half of the field since the 2006 championship when the Mids were the No. 4 seed, and is the highest for the team since entering the 1999 tournament as the No. 3 seed.

This the fourth time that Navy has garnered the third seed in the championship. In both 1995 and `96 the third-seeded Mids advanced to the semifinal round of the tournament, while the 1999 squad that was seeded third appeared in the championship game.

It is not uncommon for two teams to both close the regular season and open the postseason against each other. In fact, this will be the fifth time that the Mids will be involved in such a repeat game and the third time that Navy's opponent in the matchup will be Colgate. In both previous instances for the Mids and the Raiders (1999, 2006), the winner of the regular season game lost in the postseason. The other two occurrences for the Mids saw Navy lose to Fordham in the 1993 finale before beating the Rams in the tournament, with the Mids sweeping the two games against American in 2005.

In each of the other three instances in league history, the winner of the regular season finale also won the quarterfinal round game.

Sat., March 6 - Quarterfinals - Worcester, Mass.
12 Noon - No. 4 Army vs. No. 5 Holy Cross
2:30 p.m. - No. 1 Lehigh vs. No. 8 Bucknell
5:00 p.m. - No. 2 American vs. No. 7 Lafayette
7:30 p.m. - No. 3 Navy vs. No. 6 Colgate
Sun., March 7 - Semifinals - Worcester, Mass.
1 p.m. - Winner of Army/Holy Cross vs. Winner of Lehigh/Bucknell
3:30 p.m. - Winner of American/Lafayette vs. Winner of Navy/Colgate
Sat., March 13 - Final
6 p.m. - Semifinal winners playing at home of higher seeded team