WINCHESTER, Va. – The Shenandoah University women's basketball team officially begins the defense of its 2019 ODAC championship Thursday afternoon with a quarterfinal round game versus Randolph-Macon.
 
Fifth-seeded Shenandoah (16-9) faces the fourth-seeded Yellow Jackets (15-9) in a rematch of a regular season contest played one week ago.
 
The 'Jackets won that contest 73-51 on February 18 in Ashland behind 20 points from Kelly Williams and 14 from Michal Ross.
 
Jordan Sondrol had 17 points and Sierra St. Cyr 12 for SU.
 
This is also the second straight year that the two teams have met in the Salem Civic Center. Last season, the Hornets topped Macon, 58-41, in the semi-finals on the way to their first-ever ODAC title.
 
Ragan Johnson had 10 points off the bench for coach Melissa Smeltzer-Kraft's club in that semi-final round game. The Hornets shot 45 percent in the contest and held R-MC to 23 percent (14-of-61) shooting from the field and just 2-of-15 (13 percent) from behind the arc.
 
Macon enters the tournament as the No. 4 scoring team in the league at 68.8 points per game with SU ninth at 58.5.
 
The Hornets are the second-best defensive team in the league, allowing just 53.1 points per game, while Randolph-Macon is sixth at 60.9 ppg.
 
Kelly Williams leads the league in both scoring, 16.8 ppg, and rebounding, 11.6 rpg.
 
Sondrol is seventh in the league in scoring, 14.0 ppg, and her .869 free throw percentage is second to Taylor Casey from Washington & Lee.
 
R-MC has won 12 of the previous 16 matchups including four of the last five.
 
The SU/Macon winner faces the winner of top-seeded Emory & Henry versus No. 8 Lynchburg contest on Saturday at 1 p.m. Sunday's championship also set for 1:00.