NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's basketball team earned the No. 9 seed in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs and will hit the road to take on No. 8 seed Saint Mary's University (Minn.) in the opening round on Saturday afternoon.

St. Olaf (8-17, 7-15 MIAC) grabbed the No. 9 seed by concluding the regular season with a 67-59 Senior Night win over the College of St. Scholastica on Wednesday evening. The Oles nearly got the help they needed to claim the No. 8 seed and a home game to start the tournament, but Hamline pulled out a road win at Macalester in the closing minutes to send St. Olaf on the road.

The first-round matchup between the Oles and Cardinals will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 19. Fans are permitted to attend the game but must be properly masked per MIAC policy. Ticket prices are $7 for adults and $5 for students/senior citizens. Fans unable to make the trip can follow along via live video and live stats courtesy of Saint Mary's.

The winner of Saturday afternoon's first-round game will advance to take on No. 1 seed and MIAC regular-season champion Augsburg in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 5:45 p.m.

St. Olaf is making just its fourth appearance in the MIAC Playoffs since the tournament began in 2001 and is in search of its first-ever win in the tournament. The Oles previously appeared in the MIAC Playoffs in 2002, 2012, and 2014.

St. Olaf and Saint Mary's finished the regular season with identical 7-15 records in conference play, but the Cardinals earned the right to host by virtue of having a better record against the teams above the two teams in the standings (3-11 vs. 1-13). The teams split the two regular-season meetings with both teams winning on the road.

On Dec. 8, 2021, St. Olaf limited Saint Mary's to three made field goals in the fourth quarter, outscoring the hosts by a 20-11 margin over the final 10 minutes to grab a 72-63 win. Deadlocked at 52-52 through three quarters, the Oles held the Cardinals without a field goal for the first 6:21 of the fourth quarter as part of a 16-6 run. Senior K'Lynn Lewis led three Oles in double figures with 19 points, while junior Rachel Kelly had 12 points and 17 rebounds.

Lewis and Kelly combined for 38 points in the meeting in Northfield on Feb. 7, but Saint Mary's returned the favor with a 66-57 win at Skoglund Center. Lewis scored 11 of her team-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, but Brooklyn Paulson got a game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds from Brooklyn Paulson to salvage a split.

St. Olaf and Saint Mary's have met once in the MIAC Playoffs previously, with the fifth-seeded Cardinals edging the fourth-seeded Oles, 55-52, at Skoglund Center in the quarterfinals on Feb. 21, 2012. Saint Mary's is making its 13th appearance in the MIAC Playoffs and is 7-12 all-time in the tournament.

Kelly leads St. Olaf in both scoring (14.7) and rebounding (8.6) this season, ranking fifth in the conference in scoring and third in rebounding across the entire season. She is also sixth in the conference in field-goal percentage (.490) and has six double-doubles to her credit, including a 19-point, 20-rebound effort against St. Scholastica on Wednesday night.

Lewis gives the Oles 13.0 points per game and also leads the team in assists (59), steals (27), and three-pointers (42). The senior is coming off a season-high 24-point effort on her Senior Night on Wednesday and is averaging 17.6 points per game over the last five games.