Complete 2023 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The No. 13/17 nationally-ranked Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team has been selected to the 2023 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament, making it the fourth straight for the Yellow Jackets.
BW will travel to Holland, Mich. for the first and second rounds. The Yellow Jackets open the tournament on Friday, March 3 against Wartburg (Iowa) College, an at-large qualifier out of the American Rivers Conference. The game is set to tip-off at 5:30 p.m. on the DeVette-VanWieren Court inside of the DeVos Fieldhouse. On Saturday, March 4 the winner will play the winner of the Hope College (the host), an automatic qualifier out of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and St. Norbert (Wis.) College, an automatic qualifier out of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, matchup at 7:30 p.m.
Earning an at-large bid to this year's national tournament, the Yellow Jackets start the road to the National Championship with an overall record of 22-5. BW finished the regular season with an overall record of 21-4 and a 14-4 record in the Ohio Athletic Conference. This will be the Yellow Jackets' 17th NCAA appearance in program history.
BW finished tied for second in the regular season OAC standings, led by sophomore guard Emily Irwin (Pickerington/Pataskala Watkins Memorial) and sophomore forward Bella Vaillant (Perrysburg). Irwin leads the team, averaging 11.7 points per game (fifth in the OAC), and adds 48 assists and 39 steals on the year. She also was just recently selected to the OAC All-Tournament team after a career-high 29-point performance in the semifinal matchup. Vaillant averages 11.0 points per game, shooting 54% from the field (leading the OAC). She averages 6.5 rebounds per game and had a career-high 27 points this season.
Sophomore guard/forward Caely Ressler (Napoleon) and graduate All-OAC and Academic All-OAC guard Megan Hensel (Upper Sandusky) were also crucial in BW's success this season. Ressler, despite not appearing in the last four regular season games, averaged 8.7 points per game and 6.4 rebounds, hitting 24 three pointers, and shooting 90.5% from the charity stripe. Hensel averages 7.9 points per game and 4.9 rebounds per game. She is second on the team in made three pointers and is sixth in BW history in Career Made Three Pointers (127).
During her 33rd season, all with BW, Head Coach Cheri Harrer holds a career record of 666-238 (.737) with 10 OAC regular season titles and eight tournament championships. With this year's at-large qualifying bid, the Yellow Jackets still lead the OAC in National Tournament Appearances (17), OAC Regular Season Titles (10), and OAC Tournament Titles (8), but look for their first National Championship.
The Yellow Jackets are joined by two other OAC schools in the national tournament, No. 18 nationally-ranked Ohio Northern University, the automatic qualifier out of the OAC, and Marietta College, another at-large qualifier.