The 2022 NCAA Division-III Tournament bracket was released Monday afternoon, with Ripon's women's basketball team drawing #11 UW-Whitewater in Friday's First Round game, which will be played at Kachel Gymnasium inside Williams Center in Whitewater, Wis., with the time to be announced.

This marks Ripon's second trip to the NCAA Tournament in three seasons, while UW-Whitewater is making their sixth consecutive trip to 'the big dance', and 13th appearance in the last 14 years. This will be the sixth meeting between these two teams, with UW-Whitewater leading the all-time series, 4-1. history that they will play UW-Whitewater. Ripon trails the all-time series 4-1, with the Red Hawks' only win in the series coming during the 2004-05 season.

The four-time reigning Midwest Conference champions, Ripon is fresh off winning the MWC Tournament for the second time in three seasons. They enter Friday's NCAA Tournament riding a 10-game winning streak, which is the third longest streak in program history, while also posting an 18-9 record and a 15-1 mark in the MWC.

The Red Hawks are led by junior Alison Leslie, who is averaging 15.1 points per game on the year and nearly 21 ppg in Ripon's last six games, which includes a pair of 30+ point performances. Leslie is also shooting 41.8 percent from 3-point range, while her 69 three-pointers are just four shy of her own single season school record, which she set as a freshman. Leslie is also just the fifth player in program history to score more than 400 points in a single season, as her 409 points are just 30 shy of the single season record. Ripon is also led by Skyylar Brescia, who is averaging 9.6 points and a team-high 7.1 rebounds, while recording five double-doubles on the year. Bonnie Jensen has added nine points, five rebounds, and two assists per game, while Kiana Fall is averaging 7.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, and a team-best 3.5 assists this season.

UW-Whitewater is ranked 11th in the country in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll, but is coming off a loss in the Championship Game of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) over the weekend. They bring a 23-4 overall record into Friday's game, and finished 12-2 in the WIAC, giving them the regular season conference championship. The Warhawks were 11-1 at home this season, with their only blemish coming in that WIAC Tournament championship game.

UW-W is led by Aleah Grundahl's 16.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.4 steals per game, while Johanna Taylor is averaging 8.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.9 blocks per contest. Taylor has recorded four double-doubles this season, and is coming off a 10-point, 15-rebound performance in the WIAC Tournament Championship game. The Warhawks have seven players averaging at least five points per game on the year, and five averaging at least seven points.

Friday's game time will be announced sometime in the next day or two. It can be seen live at http://uwwtv.org/, with LiveStats available at https://uwwsports.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary. The game can also be heard live at https://kix1065.com/. The winner of Friday's game will play the winner of the DePauw vs. Illinois Wesleyan game on Saturday at Kachel Gymnasium inside Williams Center in Whitewater, Wis.