Reading, Pa. (Mar. 2, 2009) - Alvernia University earned the #4 seed in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) South Region Women's Basketball Tournament and will host a familiar for in #5 Neumann College Wednesday evening in a first round game at 7:00 p.m. at the Physical Education Center.

The game will be webcast through the Alvernia website and be available via Live Stats.

Alvernia (17-9) finished its first season in the Freedom Conference with an appearance in the conference semifinals where it lost to Manhattanville College, who joins Alvernia as the #3 seed in the ECAC Tournament.  Neumann (18-9) advanced to the Colonial States Athletic Conference playoffs where it fell to Gwynedd-Mercy College in the semifinals.  The Griffins (19-8), who fell to Cabrini College in the CSAC final are seeded #2 in the ECAC Tournament.

Albright College (17-9) earned the top seed in the tournament and will play host to #8 Juniata College (15-11) on Wednesday in a first round game.  GMC hosts #7 Wesley College (15-12) in another match-up of former Pennsylvnaia Athletic Conference foes on Wednesday and the final first round game is #6 Centennary College (17-8) at #3 Manhattanville College (17-9).

The four winners advance to a final four at the highest remaining seed.  The winner of the Alvernia/Neumann game faces the winner of Albright/Juniata in one semifinal and the other winners will play in the other semifinal.  The final pits the last two remaining teams at the final four host.

Alvernia is making its first ECAC appearance since a first round loss at Swarthmore College in 2003 and fourth overall appearance.  The Crusaders won the South Region tournament in 1995 with an overtime win over Bethany College, 75-68, and a 44-42 win over Allentown College (now DeSales University).  In 2000 the Crusaders fell in the first round to Bethany College, 63-52, and lost 68-55 to Swarthmore in 2003.

Alvernia is 19-1 all time versus Neumann College having won the first 18 meetings and split the last two in PAC play.

Neumann is led by CSAC Player of the Year Brittany Whetts who enters Wednesday's contest averaging 18.5 points and 12.7 rebounds per game this season.  Whetts has posted 19 double-doubles this season.  She is joined in double-digit scoring by sophomore Krista DiRomualdo, who was recently named All-CSAC Honorable Mention.  Whetts and DiRomualdo were back-to-back conference Rookies of the Year in 2007 and 2008.

Alvernia has a trio of players averaging double digits this season led by sophomore guard Kelli McIntyre (Orwigsburg, Pa./Blue Mountain) at 19.3 points per game.  Sophomore Alex Velazquez (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) is scoring at a 16.2 points per game clip and leads the team in rebounding at 9.2 per game.  Freshman Allison Toczylowski (Mantua, N.J./Clearview Regional) is scoring 10.8 points per game a pulling down 8.8 rebounds per contest.

2009 ECAC South Region Tournament
Wednesday, March 4
7:00 p.m. - #8 Juniata @ #1 Albright
7:00 p.m. - #7 Wesley @ #2 Gwynedd-Mercy
7:00 p.m. - #6 Centennary @ #3 Manhattanville
7:00 p.m. - #5 Neumann @ #4 Alvernia