Marquette women will face Dayton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament

The Marquette women's basketball team has plenty of motivation heading into the NCAA Tournament.

The Golden Eagles (23-9) earned a No. 8 seeding and will play ninth-seeded Dayton (23-6) at 1:30 p.m. Friday in Louisville, Ky.

MU is hoping to bounce back after an ugly 98-63 loss to DePaul in the Big East championship game.

The Golden Eagles also want to have a better showing in the NCAA first round after falling to Quinnipiac, 68-65, last season. 

"We've been working on handling adversity," MU coach Carolyn Kieger said after the selection show Monday. "Taking a punch and responding.

"We've been saying all week, 'Last year we won the conference championship and lost in the first round. This year we lose and hopefully we go to the second round.' Trying to flip the script a little bit."

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In its last game, MU gave up 16 three-pointers as DePaul rolled to the conference tournament crown. 

"We've been grinding ever since," junior guard Allazia Blockton said. "We've been having really intense practices. 

"We really found our true identity. Our coaches were saying a lot of our weaknesses throughout the year showed up in that game. So we've been using that to get better as a team."

Blockton, the Big East player of year, is averaging 18.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. She had eight points on 4-of-11 shooting with three turnovers against the Blue Demons.

MU has earned back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. All but two players on this team were part of last year's.

"Hopefully the nerves are out of the way," Kieger said. "We got that out of the way last year and they've kind of been around the environment a little bit.

"They were in the locker room. They got to have the pregame jitters. They got to see the NCAA video on the screen. Hopefully that experience will go a long way for us."

The Golden Eagles are 4-10 in the NCAA Tournament and have never advanced past the second round.

As a No. 5 seed last season, the Golden Eagles rallied from a 19-point deficit but lost to Quinnipiac when Natisha Hiedeman's three-point shot at the buzzer rimmed out.

"Last year, I feel like there were a lot of nerves," Hiedeman said. "This year, we're going to go in confident and more prepared.

"Even this year, that loss has been mentioned. So we're going in with a chip on our shoulder."

The Flyers went 15-1 in the Atlantic 10 regular season but lost to George Washington in the semifinals of the conference tournament.

Dayton has four players averaging double figures in points, led by senior guard Jenna Burdette's 16.1 per game.

"Very excited to play them and learn about them and get ready for the scout," junior guard Amani Wilborn said. 

The MU and UW-Green Bay women's teams are the state's NCAA Tournament hopes with the men's teams getting shut out of the bracket.

"We work really hard," Hiedeman said. "It just shows that women are great, too."

Wilborn echoed those sentiments.

"It is national women's month," she said. "Just glad to give recognition (to) Wisconsin."