The Muskegon Community College women's basketball team had not qualified for the national tournament since the 2007-2008 season, but that changed last Saturday when the Jayhawks won the Great Lakes District B championship.
"It was so exciting," sophomore guard Kacy Jefferies said. "When we won I just looked at my team and they looked back at me it was such a good feeling. Finally, something good like that."
MCC is headed for Hickory, North Carolina as one of just 16 teams still dancing.
The Jayhawks are the 11-seed and will pay sixth seed Parkland College.
Despite being 13-2 overall and going undefeated in league play, being an underdog will not be new to this team.
"I love that underdog mentality," 3rd year head coach Jason Cooper said. "I think we adopted that early for the whole season so it just kind of plays on our story. We have been counted out, no one thought that we would go undefeated in our league no matter how many games we had."
One reason for the success this season has been balanced scoring.
MCC has had six different players lead in scoring in just 15 games and only had a player score 20 points in a game once.
"I think we just work well as a team," freshman forward Nia Miskel said. "The scoring is really shared and everybody just does their job. We are not dependent on any one player, everybody just does their job and we work well as a team."
The Jayhawks and Cobras are scheduled to meet at 11 a.m. next Tuesday at the Tarlton Complex.