[caption id="attachment_21467" align="alignright" width="300"] courtesy of Kelley Waskiewicz / SUNY Poly AthleticsThe SUNY Poly women's basketball team won the NEAC championship last weekend, earning the Wildcats their first trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament, which starts this weekend.[/caption]

The SUNY Poly women's basketball team has already done what it set out to do this season. This weekend (and possibly beyond) is its reward.

The Wildcats wanted to play a successful season, capped by a North Eastern Athletic Conference championship. They did that. The achievement earned them an automatic bid in the NCAA Division III Tournament. Their first game is Friday , when the Wildcats travel to take on Montclair State.

“We've been knocking on the door in recent years,” head coach Jessica Skelton said. “This year, we were finally able to break through.”

Montclair won the New Jersey Athletic Conference championship and boasts a 21-6 record and a 10-game winning streak.

Not to be outdone, the Wildcats are 23-5 and have won six in a row and 19 of their last 20. The lone loss in that stretch (to Lancaster Bible) was avenged in Sunday's NEAC championship.

Finding a defensive focus might be difficult for the Wildcats.

Sophomore Katie Sire (13.3 points per game) is the only Red Hawks player scoring in double figures, but Montclair State has five players who average seven points or better.

The Red Hawks lost their only other double-digit scorer when senior guard Kayla Ceballos (13.5 ppg) tore her right ACL just nine games into the season.

The 5-foot-10 Sire (listed as a guard/forward) also averages nine rebounds a game and has shown the ability to play on the perimeter, hitting 24 of 58 3-pointers.

Rachael Krauss averages nine points and is hitting 43 percent of her 3-pointers this season.

“They're good,” Skelton said. “They have size at all positions,” - eight players between 5-foot-10 and 6-foot in the front and back court - “and they can all do a little bit of everything.”

The Wildcats' scoring options might be a little more predictable, but that doesn't make them easy to guard.

READ MORE