March 16, 2009

RAMS EARN FIRST NCAA TOURNAMENT BERTH IN SCHOOL HISTORY
Black & Gold headed to Piscataway, N.J. to take on seventh-seeded Rutgers

RICHMOND, Va. – All the hours of hard work and dedication put in by the Virginia Commonwealth University women’s basketball team paid off on Monday evening as the Rams heard their names called during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show for the first time in school history.

The Black & Gold, a 10-seed in the tournament, will make the five-plus hour trip north to Piscataway, N.J. to take on the seventh-seeded Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University on Saturday.

”I can’t tell you how happy and proud I am right now,” Head Coach Beth Cunningham said. “These kids, coaches, administration, everyone put in a ton of hard work and we were rewarded with a historic accomplishment tonight.”

The team gathered with administration, fans and media tonight in the Founder’s Room of the Stuart C. Siegel Center and heard the “Virginia Commonwealth” name read off in the Oklahoma City region just before 7:30 p.m.

”The sound that the room made is something that will always be in my mind,” Cunningham said. “Everyone just erupted when they saw that logo and name pop up. It’s been something that these kids have been working toward seeing all year long.”

Cunningham and the Rams concluded the regular season with a 25-5 overall mark and finished the CAA Tournament with a 1-1 mark after taking a tough 65-57 loss to third-seeded James Madison on Saturday afternoon.

”It was probably the toughest 48 hours I’ve ever been through,” Cunningham said. “We went from the lowest of the lows after the tough loss to JMU to the highest of the highs tonight […]. But tomorrow we’ll get back to what we’ve been doing all year long and prepare for Rutgers on Saturday.”