UAlbany ready for one last hurrah in WNIT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- There remains one Capital Region college basketball team that's still dancing: the UAlbany women. The Great Danes are set to begin their WNIT journey Thursday night.

This is UAlbany's second straight season making an appearance in the WNIT. The Danes were an automatic qualifier, and will travel to Hamilton, N.Y., to take on Colgate University out of the Patriot League.

While this wasn't the postseason destination the Danes had envisioned for much of the season - their NCAA Tournament hopes were dashed last week, falling to Vermont in the semifinals of the America East tournament - this group, which has experienced so much success over the last three seasons, relishes any extra opportunity they have to continue playing with one another.

"Being a fifth-year, it's really just [about] taking advantage of every day," said graduate forward Helene Haegerstrand. "And now we earned our spot to play in the postseason. No matter if it's the NCAA or NIT, I think we're just excited to play with each other - to get these practices in, still come into the locker room, smile around each other and just really take advantage of this last time."

"The players are hungry," added head coach Colleen Mullen. "It's a natural feeling to be let down that you weren't able to achieve that goal of winning the America East championship. But now there's a new goal, and you kinda have to press the restart button, which we did. We pivoted, and now there's a lot of excitement, especially since we found of who we're playing."

The Raiders own an 18-13 overall record, and were also the two-seed in their conference tournament before suffering a loss in the semifinals.

This is also a bit of a revenge game for UAlbany. The Danes lost in a "home game" to Colgate last year out at The College of Saint Rose - one of only two home losses they suffered all last season.

Opening tip-off from Cotterell Court is set for 6:00 p.m., and the game will stream live on ESPN+.