FORT COLLINS, Colo. (June 13, 2007) - The 16-team bracket for the 2007 Preseason Women's National Invitation Tournament was released Wednesday afternoon, and the ETSU Lady Bucs will face Western Kentucky in the first round of the tournament. All first-round games will be played Friday, Nov. 9.

ETSU and WKU have only met five prior times and the Lady Toppers hold a slight 3-2 series lead. The last meeting was held during the 2005-06 season, with WKU defeating the Lady Bucs, 86-56, inside E.A. Diddle Arena. The series began with four consecutive meetings from 1977-1980, before meeting again on Dec. 11, 2005. The last ETSU win over WKU was an 89-77 victory on Nov. 25, 1980, and the Lady Bucs went on to finish the year 21-9.

The WNIT features a new format this fall, as it moves from single elimination to a three-game guarantee. The winner of the ETSU/WKU match up will face the winner of Notre Dame/Miami (Ohio); while the eight teams who lose their first games will be re-grouped into "Consolation bracket quads," which are two four-team pools.  One team in each pool will be selected to host the other three teams. 

Second-round games will be played on Nov. 11-13, semifinals will be on Nov. 14-15 and the championship is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 18. The consolation bracket quads will be played Nov. 16-17.  All games are played on home campuses, which are determined after each round.

After posting a 20-12 mark in 2006-07, the Lady Bucs will be gunning for their third straight winning season for the first time since the end of 1983-84 campaign. ETSU looks to be in pretty good shape to accomplish the task as they are returning 82.4 percent of its scoring and 88.5 percent of its rebounding from last season. 

The Lady Toppers finished 23-9 last season, and were defeated by Wisconsin in the WNIT semifinals, 79-72. WKU has eight returning players from last year's squad, as well as five newcomers for 2007-08.

The Lady Bucs will be one of nine teams making their first-ever Preseason WNIT appearance, joining Delaware State, IUPUI, LSU, Marshall, Michigan State, Princeton, Radford and Samford. Rounding out the other seven slots were: Delaware, Evansville, Maryland, Miami (Ohio), Notre Dame, TCU and Western Kentucky.

Please visit http://www.womensnit.com for more information regarding the Preseason WNIT. For more information on Lady Bucs basketball, visit www.ETSUBucs.com and click on the basketball link.