A year after coach Kamie Ethridge took the Washington State women's team to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nearly three decades, the Cougars are going back to the Big Dance.
WSU earned an at-large bid to the tourney after finishing second in the Pac-12 and going 19-10 on the season. The eighth-seeded Cougars will face ninth-seeded Kansas State out of the Big 12 conference. The game will be held in Raleigh, N.C., and the winner has the daunting task of likely playing against home team (and the Bridgeport Region's top seed) North Carolina State.
The Cougs won't be afraid if they get the chance to knock off one of the tournament's top seeds; they've already beaten Arizona this year, and the Wildcats finished second to fellow Pac-12 team Stanford in 2021's national championship. WSU will need huge efforts from leading scorer Charlisse Leger-Walker, her sister Krystal, and inside presence Bella Murekatete to get a win or two this weekend.
WSU coach Ethridge is a former longtime assistant at Kansas State, and WSU school president Kirk Schulz came to Pullman after serving as president at Kansas State. That ought to give the Cougs' opening game a little added intrigue. ♦
Washington State vs. Kansas State tips off at 8:30 am Pacific time on Saturday, March 19. The game will air on ESPN2.
