The Boston College women’s basketball team (19-11, 9-8) just missed the cut for March Madness Sunday, though the Eagles were one of the 32 teams selected to the WNIT.
“Without a doubt, we were beyond disappointed last night with not getting selected,” said head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee on Monday. “I think that we played well enough, and deserve an opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament. With that being said, life happens.”
Led by Taylor Soule and Cameron Swartz, the lady Eagles had their best season as a program in over 10 years.
“Then for us, we kind of mourned it last night,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “We were dejected, I know I was dejected I needed to sleep on it, I needed to kind of rejuvenate myself, we just came out of practice — it was probably one of our best practices of the year. They went all out, we said we’re in championship season mode and we’re gonna approach this NIT just like it was the NCAA championship and we’re gonna go as hard as we can. We’re gonna see what we can do.”
Boston College will host Maine Thursday in their first postseason appearance since the 2010-2011 season, as it will be their 11th postseason bid in program history. If the Eagles win, they’ll face either Quinnipiac or Rhode Island — before another win will have them take on Holy Cross, Columbia, Old Dominion, or Towson.
Bernabei-McNamee said ESPN contacted the team, telling them to “get ready,” only to be disappointed.
“Getting postseason play, we’re never gonna take that for granted,” said Bernabei-McNamee. “But, I do know where our hearts wanted us to be. And that’s why I said last night, we had to get control of our emotions. I know I was emotional when my heart literally felt like it broke in my chest so I can just imagine how our players felt — it was a crushing blow. Especially when you have ESPN contact you and they tell you to get ready and show yourself and all that.
“We were all sitting in that room with that buzz and that excitement like, ‘When’s our name gonna be called? When’s our name gonna be called?’ That’s true, true heartbreak and disappointment when you worked as hard as our team has worked.
“But, as in life, we are tough, tough women. So, we took the night to mourn the idea that we were not selected in the top 68 teams, we regrouped ourselves and now we wanna show again the WNIT what we’re made of.”
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