Kent State’s women’s basketball team will face Youngstown State University in the opening round of the 2022 Postseason Women’s National Invite Tournament. The game will be on Wednesday, March 16 at 5:30 p.m. in Youngstown, Ohio.

This is Kent’s sixth WNIT appearance overall and its third in six years.

The Flashes (18-11, 10-10 MAC) finished ninth in the Mid-American Conference, just missing the MAC Tournament due to tiebreaker rules.

The Penguins (24-6, 18-4 Horizon League) earned a share of the Horizon League regular season title. Youngstown was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Tournament by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

KSU’s 2021-2022 season resume included wins against two Power Five schools: UCLA (when the Flashes beat the Bruins they were ranked No. 19 in the country) and Penn State University.

The Flashes are 6-6 on the road this season and the Penguins are 14-3 in their home arena.

The last time Kent State and Youngstown matched up was in 2019 in Youngstown and the Flashes won 82-73.

The last time the Flashes were in the WNIT was also 2019. Kent State achieved the program’s first WNIT win over the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay that year, but lost to Butler University in the second round.

The first round of the 2022 WNIT will take place on March 16-18 with the second round taking place on March 19-22. The winner of Wednesday’s game will move on to the second round to face the winner of the matchup between the University of Toledo and Houston Baptist University.

Kathryn Rajnicek is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].