The University of Delaware has been selected to host the Colonial Athletic Association women’s basketball championship tournament in both 2007 and 2008.

The CAA women’s basketball championship tournament has been conducted at nine different campus sites during the conference’s 21 years. The tournament has been held at the Patriot Center on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., for the past two seasons and before that was held at the Ted Constant Center on the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.

“Delaware was selected from among several institutions that were interested,” CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager says. “There is tremendous interest in women’s basketball in Delaware, and we know that the University will do an outstanding job of hosting our premier women’s championship.”

“This is exciting news for the University of Delaware,” UD Director of Athletics Edgar Johnson says. “We are proud that the CAA has chosen us to host this great event for the next two years here at the Bob Carpenter Center. Since Delaware joined the CAA in 2001, we have observed the first-class job that Old Dominion and George Mason have done in hosting this event, and we are excited to continue that tradition. We have great fans here at Delaware and we know they will come out and support this event in a big way.”

The 2007 season will be the first time that UD has served as host of the CAA women’s basketball championship, and all games in the four-day, 11-game tournament will be played at the 5,000-seat Bob Carpenter Center.

The UD women’s basketball team has not served as host of a postseason conference tournament game since defeating Boston University in the 1997 America East Conference quarterfinals. It last served as host to a multiple-game conference tournament in 1985, when the Fightin’ Blue Hens hosted the semifinals and finals of the East Coast Conference championships.

UD served as host of the America East men’s basketball tournament for six seasons from 1996-2001 before joining the CAA.

Under the direction of Head Coach Tina Martin, the Hens have earned a reputation for excellence. The team has won 20 or more games in six of the last seven seasons, taking the America East title and an NCAA East Regional berth in 2001 and appearing in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006.