WORTHINGTON — The Minnesota West women's basketball team gathered for a team practice Wednesday afternoon before the 2 p.m. start of the National Junior College Athletic Association selection special which revealed the team’s fate.
The Lady Jays were selected as the fifth seed in the upcoming national tournament hosted in Rochester, Minnesota. The announcement was a great relief to Lady Jays’ coach Rosalie Hayenga-Hostikka, who said she did not like living in uncertainty of the Lady Jays’ outcome.
“It has been a pretty stressful week just sitting around waiting,” said Hayenga-Hostikka. “We were extremely excited to just get in and then to get the five seed is just kind of icing on the cake. We are pretty fired up about that.”
In an interview in the selection special, Justin Hoyt, the Division Three Women’s Basketball Committee Chair, said that there was debate on whether to seed Minnesota West fourth. But ultimately the committee ranked Monroe College-Bronx, having won their district, fourth, and pushed the Lady Jays down to fifth.
“It is kind of good and bad,” said Hayenga-Hostikka on the additional game added to the schedule. “You have to play four days in a row which makes it really tough, but we have also been off for about 17 days by the time we play so it might be nice to get a game in right away.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The Lady Jays will open up the national tournament against Northampton Community College on March 15 at 2 p.m.
“Now we are just excited to be in and we can play with no pressure on us,” said Hayenga-Hostikka. "At this point we didn't care if we were the 12 seed, we are just excited to be there.”
The Trust Project
