Freshman Maggie Packard recorded her first career double-double to lead the Nebraska Wesleyan women to a 55-39 victory over the University of California-Santa Cruz on Friday night (Feb. 27) in the first round of the AD3I West Region Tournament in Santa Cruz, Calif.

The Prairie Wolves now advance to the AD3I Championship game where they will face Chapman University at 8:15 pm (PST).

The win snapped NWU's seven game losing streak and improves their overall record to 6-20, 4-4 in NCAA DIII games.

Nebraska Wesleyan held the Banana Slugs to just 28.8 percent shooting on the night, including 7-26 in the second half. NWU led by just five points at halftime, 25-20, but opened up a double digit lead at the 12 minute mark in the second half and never looked back.

Packard had her best night in a NWU uniform coming off the bench to score 12 points and pull down 10 rebounds in just 18 minutes of action. Katy Golden led NWU with 13 points and had eight rebounds, while Sadie Struebing added nine points and six rebounds for the Prairie Wolves who shot 41.8 percent from the floor.

Kayleigh Calandri scored 21 of the 39 points for UC-Santa Cruz.