ULTIMATE
ATHLETE
out which team gets the automatic bid into the NCAA’s.
“It is certainly a high priority of ours to make it to the
NCAA tournament. In our conference you have to win the
conference to get there, meaning you have to win the game,
whether it’s us or Dowling, but, with our conference being
so strong, they may take two or three teams to the NCAA
tournament,” Coach Crocitto said. “So it’s definitely a major
goal for us to get to the tournament.”
And after making into the USA Today/ Women’s
Basketball Coaches Association (WBAC) Top 25 Poll
national rankings for the first time in school history, the
team is that much more energized to take on Dowling again,
on February 20, and make it all the way to the NCAA’s.
“They were excited. They do see the big picture of ‘let’s
make the NCAA tournament, let’s see how far we can go,
let’s see how high we can get ranked.’ So it certainly was
great for them,” the coach said. “It was nice to see it happen
because a couple of weeks in a row we were close, and then
we got ranked and then we moved up.”
The coach said before the team’s matchup at Mercy
College that the Bears may move up in the rankings. “If we
go in tonight and get our 20th win, will we move up past
21st tonight? We may, so it’s interesting,” the coach said