HARTFORD, Conn. - The Trinity College women's basketball team, coached by Emily Garner (7th Season), has qualified for the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Women's Basketball Championship Tournament for the 16th time and the fifth year in a row. Trinity is seeded No. 3 in the eight-team field and will host the No. 6-seeded Amherst College Mammoths in the quarterfinal round on Saturday, February 18 at 2 p.m. The Bantams finished the 2022-23 regular season with a 20-4 overall record, its most wins since 1999-00, and finished third in the league with a 7-3 mark against NESCAC opponents. Amherst is 17-7 overall including a 51-45 setback at Trinity on January 28.  Trinity is currently ranked No. 19 in the D3Hoops.com National Poll.

The winner of the NESCAC Championship Tournament will determine the league's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. Top-seeded Tufts (18-6, 9-1) plays No. 8-seeded Bowdoin (15-9, 4-6), No. 2-seeded Williams (17-7, 8-2) hosts No. 7-seeded Bates (13-10, 5-5), and No. 4-seeded Middlebury (14-10, 5-5) hosts No. 5-seeded Hamilton (12-10, 5-5) in the other first round games on Saturday. The highest remaining seed after the quarterfinal round will host the semifinal and final rounds on February 29 and March 1 with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament in March.  Trinity is looking to make back-to-back trips to the semifinals for the first time in program history, but Amherst owns a 4-0 advantage in the NESCAC Championship series, with the two teams most recently squaring off in the 2018 quarterfinals.

Trinity was nearly flawless through the end of January, recording its best-ever record after 20 games at 19-1 but has lost three of four games and twice on the road by a single point over the last 11 days.  The Bantams, who will host a quarterfinal for the third time in four seasons, top the NESCAC statistically in several categories, including assists (15.2 per game), assists/turnover ratio (1.06 per game), field goal shooting (40.8 percent), rebounding margin (+67. per game), field goal defense (32.5 percent, 18th in nation), and scoring defense (49.2 ppg, 14th in nation).  Junior center Reilly Campbell (Wallingford, Conn.) leads the league individually in field goal shooting (58.1 percent, 10th in nation), rebounding (11.2 per game), and double-doubles with 16 (8th in nation).  Campbell is also fourth in the conference in scoring at 16.3 ppg and fifth in blocks with 1.4 per game.  Bantam junior forward Emma Wax (Pine Brook, N.J.) is the 18th-leading scorer in the NESCAC with 10.4 ppg, shoots 40 percent from long range (24-60), and adds 2.8 assists per game (8th in NESCAC).  Trinity senior guard Bria Fuller (Springdale, Md.) adds 7.3 ppg and 1.0 steal per contest.