BILLINGS, Mont. – After a one year absence, (7-seed) University of Providence women's basketball is back in on the national scene, making a third appearance in the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Championships in the past four years. UP's opens the 2018 tournament with a difficult draw, defending champions (2-seed) Oklahoma City University.
 
The Stars are the most storied program in recent NAIA Division I history, winning nine national championships including last year's. Not only does OCU win a lot of titles, the consistently make deep runs in the tournament, making the finals 12 total times and finishing third two times. They also hold an all-time record of 71-14 in the NAIA tournament.
 
UP's history doesn't go nearly that deep, but the history it does have on a national stage has been good. In the team's previous two trips to national the Lady Argos made the quarterfinals and hold a 4-2 all-time record.
 
The good news for UP is that OCU's best player from 2016-17, Daniela Wallen the NAIA Player of the Year, has graduated. The bad news is that the team's second best player from last year's championship team, Daniela Galindo is back. Galindo has stepped up her game in Wallen's absence, averaging 21.5 points per game. She also showed in last year's tournament that she came make the clutch play, beating Montana Western with a buzzer beater in the second round.
 
UP's senior guard Stephanie McDonagh will get the pleasure of matching up with Galindo and it should be a heck of a battle. The versatile guard is the two-time Frontier Conference Defensive Player of the Year and ranks 22nd in NAIA DI in steals per game (2.367 spg) and has a program record 269 career steals.
 
McDonagh will look to follow in a lineage of Lady Argo seniors to lead their team on a tournament run. In 2014-15, forward Lindsey Abramson averaged a double-double in the team's three tournament games, and the following year, guard Erin Legel averaged 20 ppg, 6 rpg, and 4.3 assists per game. McDonagh and fellow four-year senior Molly Herron were members of both of those teams.
 
Of the 32 teams in the tournament, four are from the Frontier Conference. University of Montana Western has already advanced to the second round, playing early on the tournament's first day. Rocky Mountain College will play later on Day 1, while both UP and Carroll College will play on Day 2.
 
The Lady Argo's game will be at 2:15 p.m. on Thursday, March 15.