Women’s basketball has accepted an automatic bid to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, the team announced Monday.

[gwh_image id=”1025754″ credit=”Jack Borowiak | Hatchet Photographer” align=”right” size=”1025754″]Senior guard Hannah Schaible will participate in her fourth straight postseason this Friday, as GW received an auto-bid to the 2017 WNIT[/gwh_image]

The Colonials (20-9) were automatic qualifiers by virtue of being the highest-finishing team in the Atlantic 10 that was not selected to the NCAA Tournament.

GW will host Navy (23-9) in their first-round matchup Friday at 7 p.m. The Midshipmen play in the Patriot League and finished with the second-best overall record in the conference, falling to Bucknell in overtime of the Patriot League Championship title game.

The Colonials seemed poised to earn at least an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament before a first-round defeat to Duquesne in the Atlantic 10 Championship in Richmond on March 3.

The Colonials have participated in the NCAA Tournament each of the past two seasons. Their previous appearance in the WNIT came in 2014, when current seniors Hannah Schaible, Caira Washington, and Shannon Cranshaw were freshmen.

The WNIT is a 64-team field that includes four other Atlantic 10 teams (George Mason, Saint Joseph’s, Saint Louis, and Fordham). The Colonials’ side of the bracket includes a slate of Power 5 teams, such as Virginia Tech (a likely second-round matchup), Georgetown, Penn State, St. John’s, and Michigan.