Saint Francis was the dominant program in the Northeast Conference from 1995-2005 and won the conference tournament to reach the NCAA women's basketball tournament nearly every year in that span.

But the program slipped badly from 2005-07 and that led to the dismissal of coach Jill Poe. Susan Robinson Fruchtl took over the next season and immediately talked about restoring the winning tradition, but she understood the job was not going to be easy. The Red Flash had won a total of 11 games in the two seasons before she arrived.

Last year, in her second season, Saint Francis showed it was closing in on some renewed success by finishing as the runner-up in the NEC tournament. This season, despite some early struggles, the Red Flash returned to what it believes is its rightful place atop the

Saint Francis won the NEC tournament two weeks ago, earning the conference's automatic bid in the NCAA tournament. The Red Flash (17-14) is seeded 15th in the Dayton regional and will play No. 2 seed Ohio State (30-4) at noon today at the Petersen Events Center.

It is the 10th appearance in the tournament for the Red Flash since the 1994-95 season, but its first since 2005.

Robinson Fruchtl, however, believes the program is close to where it once was.

"My first goal coming in for me three years ago was to change the culture," Robinson Fruchtl said Saturday at the Red Flash's news conference.

"We needed to change it from a losing culture to a winning culture and everything that goes with that -- work ethic, discipline, pride and an understanding of the tradition here.

"We want to be able to compete for an NEC championship every single year and, obviously, when you win it, it means you go to the NCAA tournament. But we don't want it to be just a one year thing, we want this to be something where we have a chance to win the championship every single year."

Robinson Fruchtl is very familiar with winning cultures.

She was an All-American at Penn State, the Lady Lions' only recipient of the Wade Trophy (awarded to the top Division I player nationally), and she is one of two Lady Lions to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds.

She also had several stretches as an assistant coach under Rene Portland at Penn State in the Lady Lions' glory years (1990s, early 2000s) and spent four seasons as the girls' coach at Beaver High School, building that program into one of the best in WPIAL Class AAA.

Robinson Fruchtl has done such a good job rebuilding the Red Flash, the team likely has arrived a year ahead of schedule because a roster that includes two seniors and two juniors also has a combined 10 freshmen and sophomores.

Robinson Fruchtl said that, although the future is bright, this team is special because it never stopped believing the future is now.

"We felt that we could seriously compete for a championship this year," Robinson Fruchtl. "And the kids took ownership. I mean really took ownership and, as a coach, when the kids do that, that makes your job a lot easier because they want to do it. It is more of a player-led team and, when that happens, a lot of nice things can happen."

NOTES -- The second game of the doubleheader at the Petersen Center today (approximate tipoff time 2:30 p.m.) will feature No. 7 seed Mississippi State (19-12) against No. 10 seed Middle Tennessee State (25-5), which features Alysha Clark, the nation's leading scorer (28.7 points per game). She is coming off a stretch in which she averaged 44 points and 14.3 rebounds per game in three games of the Sun Belt Conference tournament.

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