SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's basketball debuted in eighth place in the 2018-19 NCAA Division II West Region Rankings released Wednesday afternoon by the NCAA.
 
The PacWest, GNAC and CCAA tournament champions will receive automatic bids to the NCAA West Regionals and the remaining five spots in the tournament will be determined by the final NCAA Regional rankings announced on March 10. Eight teams participate in the regionals hosted by one of the top teams in the region each year. No Dominican basketball team has reached the NCAA Regionals, with men's golf being the only program to qualify for a regional tournament.
 
The Penguins were joined by fellow PacWest schools Azusa Pacific and Hawaii Pacific in the top 10. The Cougars were ranked fourth, while the Sharks are in 10th.
 
Dominican is set to host the PacWest Basketball Championships March 7-9 and have already secured its spot as a participant. The winner of the tournament receives the conference's automatic qualifying spot for the regionals. Dominican currently sits in second place tied with HPU. The Penguins magic number to secure the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye is three.
 
Dominican will conclude the regular season with a final home game Saturday against Holy Names at 5:30 p.m. PST before hitting the road to face Biola and Azusa Pacific. The Sharks will face a big test Thursday at Point Loma before wrapping up the trip to southern California at Biola on Saturday. HPU then closes out its season March 2 with a home game against Notre Dame de Namur.
 
You can see the full regional rankings here. Also for more information on the PacWest tournament please visit here.