ALBANY – The College of Saint Rose women's basketball team finds itself in familiar territory at this juncture of the season as the Golden Knights prepare to tip off at 8:30 pm Friday in the 2011 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament. Saint Rose, which will be making its 11th appearance in the field of 64 within the past 20 years, is one of five teams that were selected from the Northeast-10 Conference in an East Regional field comprised of eight competing institutions.

The Golden Knights (21-7) earned the fifth-seed and thus will meet fourth-seed Assumption College (21-7) in the last of four games at the Dana Center on the campus of Bentley College in Waltham, MA. The winner of tomorrow's meeting will advance to the regional semifinal against the winner of top-seed Bentley (25-4) and eighth-seed C.W. Post (16-12) in a 2:30 pm tilt on Sunday.

Saint Rose trails the all-time series against the Greyhounds 12-6. Assumption took both meetings between the two squads this season and has now won seven of the past eight encounters against the Golden Knights. The two teams last met in an NCAA Tournament game exactly 11 years ago (March 11, 2000), which resulted in an 88-69 Saint Rose triumph.

The 21 victories for the Golden Knights are tied for the most in head coach Karen Haag's tenure. Saint Rose ran off seven straight wins before falling 67-59 at Bentley in last Friday's NE-10 semifinal.

The Golden Knights are second in the conference in 3FG% defense (.267), and third in blocks (4.04 bpg), 3FG% (.338), assists (14.89) and A:TO ratio (0.93). All five starters are averaging at least 8.0 points per-game.

Junior first-team All-Conference guard Ashley Rath is fourth in the league with a team-leading 16.2 points per-game. Rath, who has been in double-figures scoring in 24 of 28 games and has tossed in 20-plus on seven occasions, is putting up a league-high 2.46 three-point field goals per-outing.

Junior guard Ola Shajuyigbe and junior forward Ali Johnson are second and third on the squad with 12.4 and 9.8 points respectively. Shajuyigbe is additionally fourth in the NE-10 in free throw percentage (.847). Johnson is the seventh-leading shooter in the conference by percentage (.502) and is hauling in 6.3 rebounds to go along with 1.6 blocks per-game.

Senior guard Lynsey Timbrouck and senior forward Amy Voelkel, who each had a starting role in the 2009 NCAA Tournament for Saint Rose, fill up the box score on a regular basis. Timbrouck leads the NE-10 and is fifth in the country (Division II) in assists (7.00). She also paces the league in minutes (39.11), is second in A:TO ratio (2.06) and third in steals (2.32) while tossing in 9.2 points and grabbing 5.6 rebounds per-game. She needs just four helpers (196) to become the only player in school history to eclipse 200 in a single season. Voelkel, who is eighth all-time in career rebounds (757), pulls in a team-best 7.8 boards. She also averages 8.0 points and 1.6 steals a night.

Assumption is making its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance overall and second within the past four years. The Greyhounds won six in a row before suffering a 90-75 setback to Franklin Pierce University in the conference semifinals. They squeezed out a 69-65 victory over the Golden Knights in Albany on November 17 and then came away with a 63-44 triumph back on February 3 to sweep the regular-season series.

Junior forward Kelly Meredith and senior forward Molly Griffiths, both first-team All-League honorees, are the top-two threats. Meredith is second in the NE-10 behind a team-leading 19.3 points per-game. Griffiths is producing 12.7 points and 8.5 rebounds on a regular basis.

Tickets are $8 for general admission and $3 for students, seniors, and student and are available at the door. There are no advance ticket sales. A free live video stream of the game, as well as all the contests at the East Regional will be available at www.northeast10.tv.