Sixth-straight year the Ravens have qualified for the NCAA Tournament

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Freshman forward Kara Charette averaged a team-best 13.5 points in two games against Stonehill this season.

RINDGE, N.H. (March 10, 2013) -- The Franklin Pierce University women's basketball team received an at-large bid to the 2013 NCAA Division II Tournament East Regional on Sunday night. The Ravens, who are coming off a semifinal appearance in last week's Northeast-10 Conference Championship, will be making their sixth-consecutive appearance in the national tournament and 11th overall in program history.

Franklin Pierce earned the No. 7 seed in the regional and will take on second-seeded and Northeast-10 Conference rival Stonehill in the first round on Friday at 2:30 p.m. in the Dana Center in Waltham, Mass. Bentley University, who won the NE-10 tournament title on Sunday, earned the No. 1 seed in the regional and will serve as the host school for the event.

The rest of the first round matchups in the East Region include No. 1 seed Bentley taking on the No. 8 seed LIU-Post, fourth-seeded Holy Family facing fifth-seeded Assumption, and third-seeded Dowling taking on sixth-seeded NYIT. The winner of the Franklin Pierce-Stonehill contest will face the winner of Dowling-NYIT in the second round on Saturday. The regional championship game will be held on Monday, March 18.

Franklin Pierce (18-10) earned the at-large bid following a solid regular season and NE-10 tournament run under first year head Jennifer Leedham. The Ravens had to deal with injuries to multiple players, especially at the midway point of the season. However, they shook off those setbacks to win six straight in January and eight of nine overall to help propel them to yet another NCAA appearance. 

Stonehill (23-4) also received an at-large bid to the regional. The Skyhawks, who are ranked 12th in the nation in the most recent WBCA Division II Top-25 Poll, reached the quarterfinals of the NE-10 championship before dropping a 77-72 decision to Merrimack.

The Ravens and Skyhawks met twice during the regular season with each team winning on their respective home court. Stonehill defeated Franklin Pierce, 70-47, in Easton back on Nov. 20, while the Ravens returned the favor with a 72-50 triumph over the Skyhawks back on Feb. 6 in Rindge. Franklin Pierce's February victory came against a Skyhawk team which was ranked 14th at the time of tipoff.

Back in the November meeting, Ashley Gendron came off the bench to pump in a team-high 14 points for Stonehill as four Skyhawks logged double-digits in scoring. Kara Charette (Fairhaven, Mass.) and Dyamond Gardner (Cambridge, Mass.) each netted 13 points for the Ravens in the setback.

It proved quite a different story in the February meeting as the Ravens took care of the basketball, outrebounded the Skyhawks and got balanced scoring up and down the lineup, including 15 points from Brooke Long (Richmond, Va.) and 14 from Charette. Franklin Pierce also shot an impressive 44 percent from three-point range in the game.

For more information on Franklin Pierce women's basketball, please visit the team's page at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce women's basketball apparel can do so on the athletic department's online store at athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)