Making their 13th consecutive appearance in the NCAA championships, the UW women’s crew looks to win its first team title since 2001 this weekend on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.

Ranked No. 13 in the nation, the Huskies will compete in a 16-team field featuring the best crews in the nation as they look to put together a performance reminiscent of last year’s second-place finish.

Despite being ranked in the lower half of the teams competing, the Dawgs have raced against some of the best competition in the nation, helping prepare them for this regatta. Head coach Bob Ernst has been preaching the message to his team that they have the ability to row with everybody else in the field.

“The most important thing is to just not sell themselves short,” Ernst said. “You want them to place as high as they can and gain as much experience as they can.”

The schedule calls for the first set of heats to begin today, although weather forecasts predict scattered thunderstorms throughout the morning. When the weather does clear, though, the Huskies will find themselves in the midst of some very difficult heats.

First, the women’s varsity eights will compete in a five-team race featuring what is arguably the nation’s best varsity eight, Stanford. The second varsity will also be facing tough competition, as will the varsity four, which is in a six-team heat.

Each boat will need to finish in the top three of their respective heats in order to move to the semifinals on Saturday. If they don’t, there are second-chance races for each losing boat, and if they finish in the top three of that race, they move on as well. When all is said and done, 12 teams will move on to the semifinals, and just six will move to the finals on Sunday.

With the top teams on hand and so many races, Ernst has just one strategy in mind.

“Everybody here is good,” he said. “So basically, we’ll just have to go as fast as we can every race.”

There appears to be little sense of nerves or panic from the team, as they have taken advantage of the two-week break following the Pac-10 championships to prepare for this weekend.

“I think they’re pretty optimistic,” Ernst said. “We had a great training camp back here, and they feel like they’re in the best shape they’ve been in all year.”

While the Huskies bring a relatively young team to the NCAAs, juniors Adrienne Martelli and Kayleigh Mack were named to the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association All West Region team. Martelli was further honored this week when she was placed on the Pac-10 All Conference team.

This weekend will see plenty of award recipients on all teams as the nation’s best compete for gold.

“The races are just going to be really close, really hard, tough races,” Ernst said.

Reach reporter Scott Eisen at sports@dailyuw.com.