The battle-tested WSU women’s basketball team continues its road-warrior mentality, traveling to Atlanta for a showdown with Georgia Tech (21-14) in the WNIT semifinals on Wednesday night.

The Cougars won a hard-fought game against the University of Iowa by a score of 74-66 on Sunday afternoon in a hostile Carver-Hawkeye Arena to claim one of the final four spots in the tournament, and will continue its historic postseason run. The Cougars will have played in four different time zones in their five WNIT games when they take on Georgia Tech.

“You see [Iowa’s] seniors crying after the game and I start thinking that could have been me,” senior forward Ivana Kmetovska said.

WSU has emphasized its defensive play toward the end of the regular-season and it has proved to be a difference maker in the outcome of recent games. The Cougars have held their opponents to less than 70 points in all their WNIT games. In the Iowa game, the WSU team broke the school record for most steals in a single-season with 368 on the year and counting.

“We have been taking great pride in wanting to close out games,” junior guard Caila Hailey said.

The Yellow Jackets have not been slouches on the defensive end as well, holding all of their opponents to less than 70 points in the WNIT, and in three of the games to less than 60 points.

The Georgia Tech offense is led by a balanced scoring attack from their backcourt and junior forward Zaire O’Neil. O’Neil leads the team in scoring with 12.5 points per game, followed by the backcourt consisting of freshman guard Francesca Pan and sophomore guard Kaylan Pugh, who are averaging double-digit scoring.

“My friend played against them and they’re a very athletic team,” Hailey said. “We got to get back in transition, which is one of our biggest flaws on defense.”

Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. PST on Wednesday at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta, with the winner set to play Michigan or Villanova for the WNIT Championship.