Concordia WBB Prepares for Opening Round of NCAA Tournament

THE COBBERS BATTLE ILLINOIS WESLEYAN FRIDAY IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE NCAA TOURNAMENT.

MOORHEAD, Minn. (KVRR)– This year’s Concordia Cobbers women’s basketball team continues to raise the bar. After not winning the MIAC championship, the Cobbers had to wait in suspense on Monday to see if their name would be called for an at-large bid.

After hearing they are going to the big dance, the emotion was on full display.

“We were all so excited,” said junior forward Makayla Anderson. “As soon as our name got called, if you have seen the video, every single one of us gets up and out of our seats. There is just so much love for everyone on this team, so for us to have that shared accomplishment means so much.”

For senior guard Emily Beseman, it was a rollercoaster of emotions.

“All of the emotions going on at one time,” said Beseman. “It was a weird, awkward in-between. We thought our season was potentially done, to okay, we have a second chance. Our hopes were really high about getting in, but just seeing and hearing our name is just awesome. I think this is a very good second chance for us to show everyone who we are and what we can do.”

The tournament appearance is the first one for Concordia in 10 years. For head coach Kim Wagers, in her 5th season, this was all a part of her plan.

“The tradition here is outstanding and my five year plan was to start building back to an NCAA tournament,” said Wagers. “So, it just makes all the hard work and the recruiting classes that we are building an amazing thing.”

The Cobbers finished the regular season 19-4 and split their two regular season matchups with MIAC foe Gustavus before falling to the Gusties in the championship game. The team believes the experience gained from those 3 matchups with a fellow NCAA tournament team will be helpful as they enter the tournament.

“Yeah, I definitely think it gave us a lot of confidence to get a win against Gustavus,” said Anderson. “Also, I just think we played really well overall that game. When we click as a team we play really well. To be able to that on that night was really fun.”

Junior Guard Carlee Sieben was recently named MIAC offensive player of the year. She shares the belief that the matchups with Gustavus will help this team this weekend.

“Gustavus is a great team and they are 5 or 6 in the nation,” said Sieben. “So, it definitely prepared us for the national tournament playing them three times and we are excited to play another great team on Friday.”

The Cobbers (20-5) will play Illinois Wesleyan (22-5) on Friday, March 1 at 5:15 P.M. in Waverly, IA.

Illinois Wesleyan enters the tournament ranked No. 20 in the country according to the most recent Division III coaches poll.