Published: March 13, 2008 10:55 am         

Cessna sisters, West Liberty reach NCAA tournament

INDIANA, Pa. - The West Liberty State Hilltoppers, with a pair of former Cumberland Times-News area standouts in Julie and Jenn Cessna, will be making their ninth trip to the NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament this week.

West Liberty (24-5) is the No. 4 seed in the eight-team East Region Tournament hosted by top-seeded Indiana (Pa.). The tournament begins Friday afternoon and concludes with the championship game on Monday night.

Julie Cessna, a three-time All-Area first-teamer while at Frankfort, is a 5-foot-9 junior guard at West Liberty.

The Hilltoppers were 23-4 overall and 16-3 in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference during the regular season. Julie, the first player off the bench for West Liberty, played in all 27 regular-season games, was second on the team with 42 three-point goals and third in three-point percentage at 35.9 percent. She averaged 5.4 points.

Julie led Frankfort to 67 wins in her four years as a starter, and was the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,429 career points when she graduated in 2004.

Jenn Cessna, a 5-foot-7 guard, is a redshirt freshman. Like her sister, she was a three-time All-Area first-teamer, and was also two-time first-team Class AA all-state.

Jenn Cessna led Frankfort to 68 wins in her four years as a starter. She broke her sister's scoring record, and is the school's all-time leader with 1,509 career points.

West Liberty finished the regular season with a 15-game winning streak before losing to Glenville State in the WVIAC tournament.

West Liberty and No. 5 Shepherd (22-6), both of the WVIAC, conclude Friday's first-round games with a 7:30 tipoff. The teams split their two regular-season games, West Liberty winning 79-64 and Shepherd winning 75-47. This is the first NCAA tournament game in school history for Shepherd, the WVIAC regular-season champion.

The other first-rounders pit No. 2 California, Pa. (24-6) against No. 7 Millersville, Pa. (24-5), No. 3 Anderson, S.C. (27-3) against No. 6 Fairmont State (25-6), and No. 1 Indiana (27-4) against No. 8 Mount Olive, N.C., (20-10).

Saturday's semifinals are at 5:30 and 7:30 and Monday's championship game is at 7:30.