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University of Arizona Women’s Wheelchair Invitational and Charity Game

By Pasha Zolfaghari, 01/22/18, 3:45PM CST

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Women making an impact on and off the court

From January 26-28, the University of Arizona will host the University of Arizona Women’s Wheelchair Invitational. This NWBA sanctioned event will take place at the University of Arizona in the University Recreation Center, located at 1400 E. 6th Street, Tucson, AZ.

The tournament will feature all five Intercollegiate Division teams and four Women’s Division teams, making it one of the largest gathering of women’s teams this season. The teams taking part in the tournament include, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater of Whitewater, WI, University of Illinois of Champaign, IL, University of Texas – Arlington of Arlington, TX, University of Alabama of Northport, AL, University of Arizona of Tucson, AZ, Arizona Storm of Tucson, AZ, PossAbilities Shield Maidens of Loma Linda, CA, San Diego Black Widows of San Diego, CA, and the Utah Rush of Stansbury Park, UT.

The tournament will also feature the following eight of the 17 women who made the 2018 U.S. Women’s Wheelchair Basketball National Team: Abigail Dunkin of New Baunfels, TX, Kaitlyn Eaton of Houston, TX, Sarah Heinzl of Pittsburgh, PA, Rose Hollermann of Elysian, MN, Emily Oberst of Brookfield, WI, Shantelle Winslow of Centerville, UT, Morgan Wood of Gordonsville, TN and Lindsey Zurbrugg of Portland, OR. And while the tournament will give spectators an opportunity to see our nation’s top womens wheelchair basketball players, there will be an even more important aspect to the weekend.

University of Arizona will play a charity game against the Arizona Storm, with all proceeds going to EMERGE, which will support the women's shelter in Tucson and go to fight against domestic abuse. Last year, the charity game was played for ALS research, but this year the team decided to play their game in support of EMERGE.

“Our program always asks for money from donors, but I felt we don’t give enough money back to the community,” University of Arizona Head Coach Peter Hughes said when asked about the charity game. Hughes asked his players to pick three charities to play for and they decided that they wanted to play a women’s game for a women’s organization.

In addition to the Women’s Division games, the tournament will feature an exhibition game between the employees of EMERGE and the Tucson Lobos - DIII of Tucson, AZ and a game highlighting the graduating seniors of the University of Arizona team.

For more information about the tournament, please contact Event Director Peter Hughes at 619-249-1885 or pthughes@email.arizona.edu.