After missing out on the NCAA Tournament, Penn State women’s basketball earned a bid to the first-ever WBIT. The Lady Lions were named a No. 1 seed and will face George Mason on Thursday, March 21, at the Bryce Jordan Center in the first round of the tournament.

This year’s Lady Lion team was considered a bubble team for March Madness after a six-game losing streak in February set it back in the Big Ten standings. With 19 wins, Penn State lost in the third round of the Big Ten Tournament to Iowa in a disappointing 95-62 performance. The loss moved the Lady Lions from one of the last teams in the NCAA Tournament to one of the first teams missing a bid in many bracket predictions.

In her first four seasons in charge of Penn State, head coach Carolyn Kieger hadn’t made any postseason tournaments with the Lady Lions, never punching above 14 wins before this season.

The Lady Lions haven’t played in a tournament since the WNIT in 2018, when a Coquese Washington-led unit fell to Radford in an overtime battle in the Bryce Jordan Center. After struggles in the next season, Washington was replaced by Kieger.