AUSTIN, Texas – The Concordia Texas women's basketball team qualified for their eighth American Southwest Conference Tournament appearance in the last nine years and will face the No. 1 seed out of the ASC East, No. 18 UT Dallas, on Thursday in a quarterfinal matchup.

The Tornados return to the conference tournament after missing out last season with a combination of veterans and youth. The team finished the year as the No. 4 seed in the ASC West Division after a 9-16 record, including a 6-10 mark in conference play.

Head coach Matt Wallis believes his revamped team has been preparing for the postseason tournament all season.

"All year you hope to qualify for the tournament, you push to qualify for the tournament in hopes of winning a few games and winning a championship. So it's an exciting time for our players," Wallis said. "We had six games against top 25 opponents. So every time we took a step into one of those games, we said it is to prepare for the conference tournament. We have an outstanding opponent in UT Dallas. They are one of the winningest programs over the last decade in the state of Texas in college basketball and our players are ready for the challenge."

Concordia Texas will have a tall task against the Comets, who finished the season 21-4 and 15-1 in conference play, their lone conference loss coming against East Texas Baptist back on Jan. 9.

In their lone meeting, the Tornados fell to UT Dallas 81-55. Three players scored in double figures for CTX, led by Payton Berger's 18 points, while Madi Maxwell and Kaycie Dunkerley added 13 points and 10 points, respectively.

The Tornados will rely on their youth in the matchup against the Comets, starting four freshmen and a sophomore.

Havyn Perez, Natalie Velardez, Kennedy Donovan and Maxwell have all made the most of their first year at CTX. Meanwhile, off the bench, Dunkerley and Berger had been productive as well.

Maxwell has started in all 25 games for the Tornados and averages just under 10 points and nearly five rebounds a game. Back on Jan. 9, in a 78-49 thrashing of Louisiana College, Maxwell scored a career-high 18 points, including a 3-for-5 mark from behind the arc.

Perez, meanwhile, will coordinate the offense at the point guard position. Despite, averaging just over five points a game, Perez has made an impact on the team's offensive push and moving the ball around, dishing out 4.4 assists a game, including a career-high 11-assist performance against Dallas Christian on Nov. 23.

Dunkerley, one of the team's four seniors, has been the long-range threat for the Tornados all season.

Earlier this year she set the program's all-time record for 3-pointers made back on Dec. 6 against Whitman. The Azle, Texas native added to her basketball resume last Saturday against Howard Payne, knocking down five treys to break the ASC record for most 3-pointers made in a career.

Over her last eight games, Dunkerley is averaging over three 3-pointers a game. On Feb. 6, against the Yellow Jackets, she tied her career-high for 3-pointers made in a game, scoring 23 points on a 7-of-9 shooting performance from downtown.

Wallis knows his team, especially his freshmen, have come a long way since the beginning of the season.

"I am really pleased with this group, starting four freshman and a sophomore, and having great senior leadership coming off the bench has been really good for us," Wallis said. "The seniors have done an outstanding job leading the way, teaching and showing our young players the way of how we want to do things."

Concordia Texas will take on No. 18 UT Dallas on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. inside the UTD Activity Center in Richardson, Texas, seeking to advance to the ASC Semifinals for the first time since 2018.

"At this time of the year, you have to be playing your best basketball. We felt like going into the last couple of weeks we did that," Wallis said. "We are going to go out and play our best basketball this weekend and just fight. We have to fight and play really good, clean basketball."