By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
Reaching the NJCAA National Tournament for the third time in the past four seasons, the Murray State Lady Aggies will be in somewhat uncharted waters when they take the court on Tuesday as the higher seeded team.

The Lady Aggies, who enter the event as the 12^th seed, will put a 13-game winning streak on the line against 19^th seeded Wallace State Community College in the 5:45 p.m. Central Time matchup inside the Ford Wyoming Center at Casper, Wyoming.

It will definitely be a battle of contrasting styles as Coach Nate Levine's squad loves to push the tempo with their full court pressure while the Lady Lions prefer a slower paced game, but also love to shoot three pointers. The two teams also have similar records with Murray State at 28-3 and Wallace State checking in at 28-4 on the year.

The Lady Aggies average more than 70 points per outing and have eclipsed the 80-point plateau 19 times this season. Wallace State meanwhile average 71 points as well but on far fewer shot attempts as they have reached 80 points on 10 different occasions, scoring less than 50 points in each of their South District Tournament contests.

"We are bigger and longer than them at most positions, but there is a reason they are here," Levine stated. "They execute well and a lot of them can shoot the three. They want to play at a slower pace than what we are used to and average about 14 possessions less than us per game. They really shoot it well though when they get open looks. They are similar to Seminole State in our scouting report because they have a lot of really good three-point shooters. Several of their bench players come in and shoot the three.

"Their league (Region 22) doesn't press or play the same pressure style we have played. They have played a half court man-to-man defense more than anyone we have seen. We want to play at our pace and press as much as possible."

With the higher seed this season also comes expectations as the favorite, which the Lady Aggies have not experienced in previous trips. They dropped a 50-47 overtime decision to McLennan Community College as the tournament 17 seed in 2023 and fell to Western Nebraska Community College, 71-59, in 2022 when Murray State was seeded 19^th.

The opening round winner will meet Northwest Florida State, which ended the season ranked number one in the nation, in the second round on Thursday.

"I think that everybody expected this opportunity when we recruited them here," Levine added. "Expectations have been the same. The expectation to win is still there. It's new for the program to be the higher seed going in but you still have to go prove yourself.

"If you look back at our season, we have experience playing tough people on the road. We are battle-tested and that prepared us for this opportunity."