Four area teams earned berths in the Women's National Invitation Tournament.

Pitt, Duquesne, Penn State and Robert Morris are in the expanded WNIT, which begins Wednesday. The field of 64 teams was announced late Monday after the NCAA tournament brackets were set.

Pitt (16-14) is at Toledo (24-8) Friday while Duquesne, Penn State and Duquesne play Thursday in first-round games. Duquesne (20-11) is at Northwestern (16-14), Robert Morris (23-8) at St. Bonaventure (22-9) and Penn State (17-13) plays host to Hofstra (19-13).

For the Panthers, it is the fifth consecutive season (three NCAAs, two WNITs) they have played in the postseason, and that is something that Pitt coach Agnus Berenato said is a nice accomplishment considering how far the program had to come when she arrived.

But while she is happy to still be playing, she is disappointed that the Panthers aren't going to the NCAA tournament as they had in the past three seasons.

"I'll be perfectly honest, I am really disappointed that we didn't make the NCAA tournament because that is always our goal," Berenato said. "But that is our fault, we needed to win more games and we didn't. So this is the next best thing -- we didn't want our season to end, this is another opportunity for us to play another game.

"A few years ago [2005-06] we played in the WNIT and won [three] games, and that was a springboard for us the next year, so we will use this opportunity the same: to teach, to improve and to work on some things for next year.

All four of the local teams are on the same side of the bracket so it is possible they could end up playing each other as the tournament progresses.

In fact, the Dukes and Colonial would meet in a second-round game if they win first-round matchups. It would be a rematch of a game which was played Dec. 1, won by the Colonials, 69-61.

If either of those two teams survive the first two rounds -- and Pitt won its first two games, they would face the Panthers.

Robert Morris plays Saint Bonaventure (22-9) of the Atlantic 10 Conference in the Colonials' first trip to the WNIT.

Robert Morris earned one of 31 automatic bids to the tournament after winning the regular-season Northeast Conference championship. Colonials coach Sal Buscaglia said the WNIT is a nice consolation, but the Colonials had hoped for better.

"We're certainly very disappointed that we didn't reach our goal of once again getting to the NCAA tournament," he said. "We felt we did everything right this year. You don't go 17-1, win every conference road game ... and not feel you're not an NCAA team."

The Colonials won a share of back-to-back NEC titles in '07 and '08 -- advancing to the NCAA tournament both years -- but had not won an outright championship until this year.

"We have to focus that this is our third postseason tournament in four years," Buscaglia said. "We have to reflect on the positive of the season. Maybe not the postseason we want. We certainly are disappointed but we are fortunate we have a postseason tournament to go to.

Top-seeded Robert Morris (23-8) lost to sixth-seeded Saint Francis, Pa., 80-79, in the NEC tournament semifinals. The Red Flash won the tournament title Sunday, earning an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament. No NEC team has won a WNIT game since the field expanded in '08.

Duquesne is in the field for the second consecutive season which head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio said is is a sign that the Dukes are a program on the rise.

"We are very excited to be participating in the postseason for the second consecutive year," said McConnell-Serio. "The team worked hard all season and I couldn't be more proud of them."

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