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Several Charlotte area teams will begin play in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament on Thursday, including a game between the Charlotte 49ers and Appalachian State at 7 p.m. in Halton Arena.
In other games, Davidson will play at Old Dominion and Winthrop will play at Florida Gulf Coast.
The 49ers (24-5) are playing in the postseason for the 11th consecutive time and their ninth in the WNIT over that span. Charlotte has been successful in the WNIT before, advancing to the semifinals in 2011, when they lost to Toledo.
Charlotte received the Atlantic 10’s automatic berth to the tournament (with the highest A-10 finish after NCAA qualifiers Dayton and Saint Joseph’s).
This is third consecutive WNIT appearance for Appalachian State (20-10).
Appalachian and Davidson lost in the Southern Conference tournament to Chattanooga. The Wildcats ( 21-12) fell in the championship game to the Mocs and got the league’s automatic bid.
Old Dominion (19-11) has one of the Colonial Athletic Association’s top players in Shae Kelley.
The Charlotte-Appalachian winner will play the Davidson-ODU winner in the second round.
Winthrop (20-11) is playing in the WNIT for the second time in four seasons and received the Big South’s automatic berth.
Other first-round games Thursday have East Carolina (22-9) at Western Kentucky (21-10), Richmond (16-15) at N.C. State (16-16) and N.C. A&T (22-9) at James Madison (22-10).
