N.C. A&T women to face Florida State Seminoles

from Brian Holloway SID at N.C. A&T:

GEORGIA IS ON THE AGGIES MIND
Aggies to play Florida St. in opening round

GREENSBORO, – ESPN is a network known for SportsCenter, showing sporting events and sports analyst. But who knew the network dabbled in suspense as well.

The North Carolina A&T women’s basketball team is the No. 14th seed in the Trenton Region of the NCAA Tournament. The Aggies will face the ACC’s Florida State Seminoles Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., from Duluth, Ga. After hearing where they were going and who they were playing, the 26-6 MEAC Champions erupted in celebration after being put through agony for 41 minutes.

“A fourteenth seed just shows the kind of respect these young ladies have earned over the last two seasons,’’ said head coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs, whose Aggies earned the highest seed ever for a MEAC women’s team. “We are excited, but we are not just happy to be there. We’re going to come ready to play.”

The North Carolina A&T women’s basketball team along with 250-300 of their loyalist fans waited patiently to find out where the Aggies would be seeded for the 2009 NCAA Tournament.

With the two big screens at the Memorial Student Union’s Stallings Ballroom playing the women’s selection show on ESPN, Aggie fans, players and coaches sat through the revealing of three brackets, but did not hear the words North Carolina A&T.

Another name they did not hear was UConn. The University of Connecticut is the No. 1 team in the nation, they are undefeated and they beat Oklahoma – a No. 1 seed in its own right – by 28 points during the regular season. As the ESPN show returned from commercial, the screen showed UConn as the No. 1 seed in the Trenton Region.

After two seconds, the name Vermont popped up under the screen as the No. 16 seed. Aggie fans launched into a loud applause after being relieved that the selection committee had more respect for the Aggies season than to put them against the Huskies’ powerhouse.

“If it was UConn then it would have been UConn,’’ said Bibbs. “At this point, you’re just happy to still be playing. But I thought our ladies deserved more than a 16th seed. We had a great season. We beat a good team like Charlotte, the Atlantic 10 champions, so we would have thought it strange for us to be a 16th seed.”

The Aggies had to wait until the bottom of the Trenton bracket was displayed before finding out their destination. After the Arizona State/Georgia game was revealed, the name Florida State popped up. Underneath the Seminoles logo popped up the name North Carolina A&T as the crowd jumped and screamed for about one minute.

The Seminoles are 25-7 on the season. They tied for the regular-season ACC crown with a 12-2 mark. They are led by 6-foot-4 center Jacinta Monroe’s 13.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Tanae Davis-Cain, a 5-11 guard out of Dawson, Ga., is second on the team in scoring at 13.0 points per game.

One thought on “N.C. A&T women to face Florida State Seminoles

  1. This could be a major upset in the making!

    GO AGGIES!

    AGGIE PRIDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

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