Amherst, Mass. - The UMass women's basketball team heads to Halton Arena in Charlotte, N.C. on March 6 to take on the Duquesne Dukes at 8:00 p.m., as the conference announced the bracket yesterday for the 2009 Atlantic 10 Championships. The Minutewomen were seeded eleventh, while the Dukes are the sixth-seed. Massachusetts tied Saint Joseph's in the standings at 5-9 on the season, but the Hawks defeated UMass last weekend to earn the tenth-seed and give UMass the eleventh. The Minutewomen finished the regular season 12-17 overall, 5-9 in the Atlantic 10. The winner will take on Charlotte at 8:00 p.m. March 7.

Xavier University (25-5, 13-1) captured the A-10 regular season title and the Conference's top seed. The opening round commences at noon Friday. The semifinals games on March 8 will be broadcast nationally on CBS College Sports and Monday's Championship game will be shown nationally on ESPN2 at 5:00 p.m.

The last time the Minutewomen faced the Dukes, senior Stefanie Gerardot logged her sixth 20-point game of the season to finish with 28 as UMass came up short, 75-61. The game was one of big runs by both teams, as the Minutewomen opened the game scoring 12 of the first 16 points followed by Duquesne scoring an unanswered 12 points. Duquesne came out of the locker room scoring 11 of the first 14 points, and would never look back as they maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the way.