Lady Owls set to meet Bethel in first round of NAIA tourney

The William Woods University Lady Owls basketball team will face fifth-ranked Bethel (Tennessee) University next week in the first round of the 35th-annual NAIA Division I women's national tournament.

William Woods (23-8) drew the seventh seed in its portion of the bracket and will play No. 2 Bethel (30-3) in the first round at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, March 19, at the Independence Events Center. The Lady Owls received an automatic bid as the host school for the national tournament, which moved this year to Independence in the Kansas City suburbs.

Under head coach Dan Chapla, William Woods is making its seventh straight appearance - and eighth overall in program history - in the national tournament. The Lady Owls had their seven-game winning streak come to an end in a 65-46 loss to Lyon (Arkansas) College last Saturday night in the semifinals of the American Midwest Conference postseason tournament.

William Woods, which went 15-3 over the final two months of the regular season, also won at least 20 games for the seventh year in a row.

Bethel - the SSAC Conference regular-season champion - logged 24 straight victories before falling to Loyola (Louisiana) 81-59 in the conference's postseason tournament.

William Woods and Lyon were two of three AMC schools to qualify for the national tournament. Freed-Hardeman (Tennessee) University (32-1) is the No. 1 overall seed and will meet Cal State San Marcos (16-15) in the first round at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 18.

Fifth-seeded Lyon (27-6) squares off against Westmont (California) (24-6) in first-round play at 10:45 a.m. Thursday, March 19.