Eagles to face Huskies in a WNIT opener

For the second time in four years under coach Wendy Schuller, the Eastern Washington women’s basketball team will play in a national postseason tournament.

The Eagles received an at-large bid to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

Eastern (19-12) will take on the Washington Huskies (20-11) on Friday at the Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle. The time has not been announced.

“It means the world to us to have an opportunity to participate in a very prestigious postseason tournament,” said Schuller, in her 12th year as Eastern coach. “We are very honored and excited to be given an at-large invitation.”

This will be Eastern’s second time competing in the WNIT, and its third national postseason appearance in history.

EWU earned an automatic bid to the WNIT in 2010 by virtue of its Big Sky regular-season title, in which the team finished 12-4 in league play. Prior to that, the Eagles had not played in a national postseason tournament since 1987, when EWU earned its first and only NCAA tournament berth after a 77-74 win over Montana in the Mountain West Conference title game.

The Huskies, in their second straight WNIT, finished fifth in the Pac-12 this year. They are 21-1 all-time against EWU.

UW made it to the WNIT quarterfinals last season.