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The Colorado State women’s basketball team will return to the postseason for the fourth consecutive season, as the Rams have been selected for the Postseason Women’s National Invitational Tournament. The organization announced its bracket on Monday night.
Colorado State (24-8) makes its third Postseason WNIT appearance in the past four seasons. CSU will host Saint Mary’s (20-12) on Thursday at Moby Arena, with the official start time to be announced on Tuesday. Should CSU advance, the Rams will face the winner of UC Davis vs. Utah on a date to be determined between March 18-21.
Ticket information for Thursday’s game can be found at CSURams.com/tickets or may be obtained through a call to 800-491-RAMS.
Only three teams In the Postseason WNIT field – Mercer (25), New Hampshire (26) and Stetson (26) – have won more games than CSU this season. CSU is one of three Mountain West schools in the WNIT field, along with Wyoming and UNLV. The Cowgirls and Lady Rebels finished second and third, respectively, behind the Rams at the conclusion of the regular season. 11 teams in the WNIT field either won their respective regular season conference titles outright or shared their conference title.
The Rams enter the WNIT fresh off their fourth consecutive outright regular-season Mountain West title. Other than Colorado State, no basketball team in conference history – women’s or men’s – has won the regular-season league title in four straight seasons. CSU has won all four outright; of the previous teams that had won at least three straight regular season titles, at least one was shared.
CSU is paced by senior guard Ellen Nystrom, who leads the team in points (15.1), rebounds (8.0), assists (5.1) and steals (2.0) per game. Nystrom was named MW Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, and also earned her fourth consecutive All-Mountain West and MW All-Defensive Team honors. Nystrom is one of four players in the nation averaging at least 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists per game.
Fellow senior and All-Mountain West honoree Elin Gustavsson averages 14.2 points per game and 6.6 rebounds per game. By any measure, the pair of senior are the winningest duo in conference history. Gustavsson and Nystrom are the only women’s or men’s basketball player to win four reular season conference titles, and have the most regular season MW wins (63) of any women’s or men’s basketball player in conference history.
This marks the third WNIT appearance for the Rams under fifth-year head coach Ryun Williams (2013-14, 2014-15, 2016-17), and fourth consecutive postseason appearance (including NCAA Tournament appearance in 2015-16). The Rams had only made as many consecutive postseason appearances once in program history, with that streak occurring over 10 seasons ago (1998-2004).
Featured Image Credit: CSU Rams Women’s Basketball, Twitter
