RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The bracket for the 2026 Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) was announced Monday and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's basketball team will play at Austin Peay in the first round at 6 p.m. (CT) Thursday at F&M Bank Arena. 
 
This will be the first meeting between UTRGV (20-13) and the Austin Peay Governors (19-13). The Governors went 8-10 in the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) and were the #8 seed in the conference tournament. They went on a run and reached the ASUN Championship game, where they fell, 66-63, in overtime to #2 Jacksonville. 
 
Waiting for the winner of the first-round game between UTRGV and Austin Peay is Illinois State. The Redbirds (20-13) received a first-round bye. They were the #3 seed in the Missouri Valley Conference after going 13-7 in the regular season and fell in overtime in the conference tournament semifinals. 
 
The second-round game against Illinois State will be played between March 22-24 should the Vaqueros defeat Austin Peay at a to-be-determined location. Super 16 games will be played March 25-27 followed by the Great 8 round March 28-30. The Fab 4 games will be scheduled March 31-April 1 and the WNIT Championship game is set for April 4 at 2 p.m. (CT) at a location to be determined. 
 
This is UTRGV's fifth trip to the postseason and second berth in the WNIT. This season, the Vaqueros set program records for overall wins, conference wins (16), road wins (10), conference road wins (9), consecutive conference road wins (8), consecutive conference wins (7) and wins before the conference tournament (19). UTRGV matched the program's longest winning streak of seven games. The Vaqueros finished the regular season tied for third in the conference standings, their best finish since claiming the No. 2 seed in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament in 2018-19. The Vaqueros reached the semifinals of the Southland Conference (SLC) Women's Basketball Championships, earning their first conference tournament victory since the 2021-22 season. 
 
UTRGV is currently No. 200 in the NET rankings, the highest under head coach Lane Lord. The Vaqueros are 183^rd in NET strength of schedule (SOS) and 18^th in non-conference SOS. 
 
UTRGV made three consecutive postseason appearances from 2014-17. The first was in 2014-15 as the Vaqueros competed in the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI). In 2015-16, the squad was selected for the WNIT. UTRGV earned the first postseason win in program history in 2016-17 as it reached the quarterfinals of the WBI, knocking off top-seeded Stephen F. Austin, 62-54, at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. UTRGV returned to the WBI in 2018-19. 
 
The WNIT is hosted by Triple Crown Sports. The field will consist of 48 teams made of automatic selections, which are the highest-finishing teams in a conference's regular season standings which were not selected for the NCAA Tournament or WBIT, and at-large bids. To be eligible for an at-large berth, teams must have an overall record of .500 or better. 

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