The best regular season in Mississippi State history led to the program’s first women’s NCAA Tournament berth in five years.

Mississippi State (26-6) received a No. 5 seed and will face 12th-seeded Tulane (22-10) in the first round Friday at 1:30 p.m., in Durham, N.C. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

The MSU-Tulane winner will play either Duke or Albany in the second round Sunday.

It’s MSU’s first NCAA Tournament bid since 2010. The No. 5 seed is the second-highest it has ever received.

“This is a great night for our program and Mississippi State University,” Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer said in a release. “My staff and I thought we had a special team all along, and this kind of confirms those early beliefs.”

While Mississippi State got to go dancing in the NCAA Tournament, in-state rivals Ole Miss and Southern Miss had to settle for berths in the Women’s NIT.

Southern Miss (22-10) reached the Conference USA tournament championship game before losing to Western Kentucky, and fell into the second-tier WNIT as a result.

The Lady Eagles will host Texas Southern on Thursday night at 7.

Ole Miss (17-13) will be making its first postseason appearance since 2010 when it hosts Tennessee-Martin Wednesday at 7 p.m. The 2009-10 season was also the last time Ole Miss finished with a winning record.

“We’re very excited to still be playing. This is as late as any of us have played in our career here at Ole Miss and we’re ready to get back on the court,” Ole Miss senior forward Tia Faleru said in a school release. “We are focused on taking this postseason one game at a time and first up is UT Martin on Wednesday.”