OSHKOSH, Wis. -- The Northwestern women's basketball team heads into this weekend's NCAA Tournament first and second rounds for the first time in program history after earning the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference's (UMAC) automatic qualifier with the league's postseason tournament title. At 20-6 overall, the Eagles are having their best season in terms of wins and losses in 12 years.

Northwestern has never faced its first round opponent, Washington University-St. Louis, in the two teams' history.

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UNW went 10-4 in UMAC play and had three players voted to the league's all-conference teams on Tuesday. In addition to being a first team selection for the second consecutive year, senior point guard Mollie Sir (Cresco, Iowa/Crestwood) was named the UMAC Player of the Year.  Sir will start her 79th straight game in Friday's NCAA Tournament opener. Sir is averaging 14.8 points per game and has a 35 percent success rate shooting from outside the three-point arc. Her three-point field goals per game rank among the top 25 in the nation for Division III.

Jessica Fife (Maple Grove, Minn./Osseo) is also having another standout year for the Eagles. A three-time UMAC All-Conference Second Team member, Fife is nearly averaging a double-double with 12.1 points and 9.4 rebounds per contest in 2013-2014. Fife has grabbed at least 15 rebounds in five contests this year and has eight double-doubles in the books in her senior season.

Chanel Madson (Westbrook, Minn./Westbrook-Walnut Grove) is the third Northwestern player to average double digit points at 14.2 per game. Madson went off in last Saturday's UMAC Tournament championship game against Minnesota Morris, going 5-7 from downtown to finish with 15 points. Madson, also an All-UMAC Second Team honoree, has made 68 three-pointers this year and is the team's top free throw shooter having made over 86 percent of her attempts at the charity stripe. As a team, Northwestern's 75 percent free throw percentage ranks fifth in the nation.

2014 represents head coach Aaron Kahl's first NCAA trip as a head coach. Kahl, who spent three seasons at NAIA member Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, S.D. before starting his tenure at Northwestern in 2010, went  to the NCAA Tournament as the top assistant at Gustavus Adolphus College in 2003 and two more times as a student-athlete and graduate assistant coach for the Gusties men's team.

Washington University, known as Wash-U in Division III circles, has been around the block and then some when it comes to postseason play. The Bears enter this week's tournament ranked fifth in the nation (D3Hoops.com), and are appearing in the NCAA postseason for the 25th consecutive year. Washington has been ranked among the D3Hoops.com Top 25 in 173 of the 198 polls that have been released since the 2001-2002 preseason. Wash U. is 23-2 overall and went 13-1 in University Athletic Association (UAA) play to win the league's regular season title. The Bears' two losses in 2013-2014 came against then-No. 1 Depauw and conference foe University of Rochester.

Washington is led by junior Melissa Gilkey, who was named the UAA Player of the Year averaging 16.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. Like Northwestern's Sir and Madson, Gilkey scored her 1,000th career point this season. The forward has 97 career blocks and 610 career rebounds. Four other Bears were named to the all-conference second team and honorable mention squads including Alyssa Johanson (11.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG), Kristin Anda (8.4, 5.8), Maddy Scheppers (9.6, 4.1) and Jordan Thompson (8.4, 2.7). Scheppers, a junior, was voted the UAA Defensive Player of the Year. Washington U's class of 2014 that includes Montgomery, Jordan Rettig and Jessy Rosen has led the Bears to an overall record of 91-20, including four 20-win seasons and four NCAA Tournament appearances.

Friday's tipoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. in the 5,000-seat Kolf Sports Center, the site of the 1996 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Final Four.