When Amanda Butler took over the women’s program last April, she asked each of her players what their goal was for this season?

“My answer to her was I wanted to play in the post-season, whether it was to be the NCAA Tournament or the WNIT. I just wanted to continue to play,” Clemson guard Dani Edwards said.

Edwards got her wish.

Thanks to the play of the senior guard, along with teammates such as Aliyah Collier, Simone Westbrook and Kobi Thornton, the women’s program will play in its first post-season basketball game in 15 years when it takes on South Dakota today (7 p.m.) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Starkville, Miss. It marks Clemson’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2002.

“To actually see our name (in the bracket) and we actually get a chance to continue our season now, it just means a lot to me,” Edwards said.

The Tigers (19-12) got to the Big Dance thanks to having their best season in 17 years. They went 9-7 in the ACC and finished seventh overall in conference play, after being picked to finish last in the league in the preseason.

Clemson had just nine wins combined in the ACC the previous four seasons.

In Butler’s first year as head coach, Clemson also earned three wins over top 25 teams, including two of them on the road. Earlier in the season the Tigers posted back-to-back top 25 road wins for the first time in the program’s history.

“It’s everybody’s goal to continue to play,” Westbrook said. “Like Dani said, it does not matter what tournament you go to, you just want to continue to play.”

This is not the first time Westbrook has played in the NCAA Tournament. The graduate transfer was part of a Florida team, when Butler was the coach there, that played in the Big Dance in 2016.

“Already being here, and it has been a while, but the feelings all came back, and the butterflies are starting to come around,” Westbrook said. “Everybody on the team is talking about it. But we have to stay focused. Now we know we are playing so it is time to begin our process and get back to the same ole.”

But it will not be the same ole for Edwards, who admitted she will probably be a little nervous when the reality of the moment hits her when the basketball is tossed into the air for the first time later tonight.

“This is the moment I have been waiting for since I was little,” she said. “I just wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament. So, I am excited, but hopefully, I am not too excited.”

Westbrook says there isn’t too much she can say to calm the nerves of Edwards and the rest of the Tigers who will be playing in their first NCAA Tournament.

“You just prepare them for as much as you can,” she said. “At the end of the day, you want to treat it like another game. It does not matter where we are playing or who might be watching. We know what we have to do each game and just try to stay level headed and stick to our game plan. We will be alright.”