The Benedictine University women's basketball team qualified for the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament in each of its first eight years of existence. Year nine of the NACC is no different, as BenU is once again headed to the conference's postseason tournament. This year, the second-seeded Eagles will host a home game in the First Round, taking on Lakeland College on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in the Dan and Ada Rice Center.
 
Benedictine's 16 wins this season is the most in the Kristen Gillespie era and the program's most since a 16-10 season in 2010-11. Also, the 16-4 NACC record is the team's best since the conference was formed in 2006-07. This season, the Eagles started the season 0-5 before winning six consecutive NACC games. After falling to Wisconsin Lutheran College on January 6, BenU went on to win eight out of the next nine games before splitting the last four games of the season.
 
Lakeland (10-15, 9-11) posted its third consecutive losing record this regular season, but returns to the NACC Tournament after failing to qualify last season. The Muskies also had a shaky start to the season, posting a 2-10 overall record through January 3. However, Lakeland has sense turned a corner, going 8-5 since and winning three straight games before dropping its regular season finale against Edgewood College. Lakeland is making its seventh NACC Tournament appearance in nine years.
 
The Eagles and Muskies already met in Lisle this season, with BenU prevailing 68-39 on December 13. Meghan Novak's 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting led the Eagles, who shot 51.8% from the floor in the victory. Nicole Botich also played solid basketball, posting 11 points and eight rebounds. Lakeland shot just 30.6% and posted more turnovers (20) than made shots (15) in the contest.
 
However, the Muskies even things up on Saturday, defeating BenU 63-61 in the final seconds. Lakeland led by as many as 12 midway through the second half, but the Eagles fought back to tie the score at 61 on a DeKalya Crayton lay-up with 40 seconds remaining. However, with one second to go, Lakeland's Rachel Stankevich slipped behind the defense to catch a pass and make a go-ahead lay-up as time expired. Crayton (16 points, 11 rebounds) and Botich (10 points, 10 rebounds) posted double-doubles in the loss.
 
Benedictine and Lakeland have met twice in NACC Tournament history. In the 2010 NACC Tournament Championship game, the Muskies defeated BenU 71-60 at Lakeland, which was the school's last tournament victory. In the conference's inaugural season, the Eagles defeated Lakeland in Lisle 67-47.

Live audio, video, and statistics will be available for Saturday's game at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/benu/. Mark Vasko will be on the call. As the tournament's second seed, a victory on Saturday would set up a Tuesday night Second Round match-up for the Eagles in Lisle against the winner of the third-seed Milwaukee School of Engineering and sixth-seeded Edgewood.