GAMBIER, Ohio – For the ninth straight season the Kenyon College women's basketball team will be hosting a first-round North Coast Athletic Conference tournament game. This year's tournament opener will be against Oberlin College and will be held at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Tomsich Arena.

The Ladies (18-7, 12-4 NCAC) enter postseason play as the No. 2 seed and Oberlin (9-16, 4-14 NCAC) is the No. 7 seed in the eight-team tournament. The four highest seeds earned home-court advantage in first-round action. The highest remaining seed left standing after first-round games are complete will host both the semifinals and finals on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Kenyon also enters the postseason carrying some impressive credentials. As of February 15, the Ladies were ranked as the second-best team in the nation in free throw shooting accuracy and ranked as the 14th-best team in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio. On an individual basis, junior Maureen Hirt ranked second among all NCAA Division III players in free throw shooting percentage and 16th in three-pointers made per game. Senior Kayla Ernst was 11th in field goal shooting percentage and 21st in scoring average.

Ernst, who averages 19.8 points per game, has put together one of the best seasons in Kenyon history. She's racked up 494 points, a total that is second-best the College's record book and just 28 behind Kim Graf's record of 522 points scored in the 1996-97 season. Ernst also owns 1,464 career points, the third-best total in Ladies history.  

As a team, the Kenyon women average 64.0 points per game and hold opponents to an average of 55.6 points per game. Thanks to the play of guards Maggie Boelter and Katie Adlam, the Ladies rank first in the NCAC with 378 assists. Boelter leads the conference with 107 assists (the fifth-best single-season total in Kenyon history) and Adlam ranks top-25 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Kenyon twice defeated Oberlin during the regular season. The Ladies won, 67-58, at home on January 5, and then took a 70-57 decision at Oberlin on February 6. The wins stretched the Ladies' streak to 21 straight over Oberlin. Overall, the Kenyon women are 57-17 all-time against the Yeowomen.

Oberlin scores an average of 54.7 points per game and yields 60.5 points per game. The Yeowomen are steered by 5-9 sophomore forward Christina Marquette, who averages team-bests of 18.9 points and 9.5 points per game.

As mandated by the conference office, the price of admission for Tuesday's game is $7 for adults and $5 for children and students without a college identification card. Students from NCAC institutions will be admitted free provided they show proper identification.