With two convincing wins under its belt to start the NCAA Tournament, the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team is ready for another opportunity in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.

The No. 22 ranked Hawks (25-4 overall) handily defeated their two opening round opponents  — Rutgers University-Newark and Emmanuel College — by 29-plus points in the Hawk Center March 1 and 2 to put themselves back in the third round for the second time in three years. However, they've got a tough matchup ahead, as they take on hosting No. 2 Bowdoin College (28-1), which played for a national championship just a year ago. 
 
"Our preparation was really knowing our game plan," said SUNY New Paltz senior guard Taylor Howell. "At this point in the season it is about what we do, not about what everybody does. If we focus and hone in on what we do best, our shooting, our transitions like that type of stuff, then I think we're going to be good."
 
The last time the Hawks made a run into the Sweet 16, they defeated the Polar Bears 62-61 at Ithaca College in the opening round. SUNY New Paltz still has eight players from that team, including senior guard Lindsay Bettke, junior guard Marion Dietz and junior forward Paige Niemeyer who all contributed in the win.
 
"The last time we were in this position in the Sweet 16 we came in knowing that we deserved to be here and we knew that every play counted, and that is the same thing we're carrying over this time around," Bettke said. "We played Bowdoin two years ago and it was an upset, but this year we don't see it as an upset. I think we are evenly matched and we just have to play each play like it is our last."
 
Dietz was the catalyst offensively in the Hawks' first two NCAA games last weekend, combining for 43 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Bettke and fellow senior guard Rachel Simon has led the team throughout the regular season, averaging 15.5 and 18.8 points per game respectively, which sat top-3 in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) to earn them First-Team All-SUNYAC selections, along with a Player of the Year nod for Bettke. SUNY New Paltz played two of its best defensive games of the season in the lopsided victories in the Hawk Center against the Scarlet Raiders and Saints, and the defensive pressure will have to continue against a talented a deep Polar Bear squad.
 
"Watching them on film it was a little scary, because they are very similar to us in the way their guards and their forwards play," said Bettke. "But we know our team inside and out, so I think we match up pretty well. Like I said, I think it is going to be a close game. I think it is going to be a battle, because we are so similar to them. But if we just stick to our game plan and shut certain players down it will be fine."
 
Bowdoin is a quick team that can get up and down the court. It averages nearly 85 points per game and gets offensive production from a number of players, as four head into the game averaging double-figure points in junior forward Maddie Hasson (17), senior guards Abby Kelly (16.8), Taylor Choate (10.8) and junior guard Samantha Roy (10.2). As a team, the Polar Bears shoot more than 47 percent from the floor and about 37 percent from 3-point range, while averaging nearly 17 assists a contest.

Defensively, Bowdoin has held opponents to less than 56 points per game on just 36.6 percent shooting from the field, including 32.3 percent from 3-point range.
  "What they do really well is pushing in transition," Howell said. "They are really quick, so we got to be ready to get back on defense and be ready to guard and not just be there in the paint, because they have shooters outside as well."

Unlike the Hawks, who are riding a 21-game winning streak en route to earning a conference championship, which notched an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, the Polar Bears needed an at-large bid to extend their postseason play. Their only loss of the season came in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) championship game against rival Tufts University, 75-69, back on Feb. 24. Since then, they earned first and second round NCAA Tournament victories over Hunter College (93-73) and Smith College (87-68) at home last weekend.

Bowdoin overcame a career-high 36 point night from Hunter's Jade Aponte, as Roy (16 points), Choate (12), Kelly (12) and Hasson (10) led the Polar Bears in the victory. 
 

Against the Pioneers the following night it was Choate who put up 38 points — setting a program record — to lead her team in the victory. She shot 14-for-19 from the floor, including 7-for-8 from 3-point range. Kelly followed with 19 points in a comeback win that saw the Polar Bears rally from a 10-point deficit midway through the third quarter to out-score the opposition 31-14 in the fourth to come out with the win.
 
"I know the NESCAC conference is pretty competitive and there are teams in this conference that always make the NCAA Tournament, so they might just walk in thinking that this is another game to them," Bettke said. "But we are coming in here thinking that this is huge. We have an opportunity here to make history for our school and our program."
 
The Hawks are set to take on Bowdoin Friday at 7 p.m. with the winner moving on to the Elite Eight Saturday at 6 p.m. The advancing team will take on the winner of DeSales University and Ithaca College, which is slated for a 5 p.m. tip-off in Morrell Gymnasium.
 
To watch the game live, click here and to follow along with live stats, click here.
 
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