The ISU women’s basketball team’s bubble was maybe as large as its ever been heading into Selection Monday, but the Cyclones (18-12, 9-9 Big 12) did hear their names called as a No. 10 seed in the Kingston, R.I., region.

Iowa State, which is appearing in its sixth consecutive NCAA tournament, will host No. 7 seed Green Bay on Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.

“We get to come back to practice tomorrow and be a part of the greatest three weeks in sports in my opinion,” said ISU coach Bill Fennelly on Monday night. “So I’m very proud of our players and proud of our staff for getting to this point.”

The 2011-12 ISU team has dealt with adversity from many angles this season including Fennelly’s bout with an invasive cancerous lesion on his vocal cords.

“It would be easy for me to say probably it’s been the hardest year we’ve ever had here,” said Fennelly, Iowa State’s coach for the past 17 seasons. “It just seemed like every time something started to go right, something went wrong, whether it was me or injuries or [going 0-5 to start conference play], we just never had any flow.

“So for us to be in this position really says a lot about the players and my assistants and the fans and everyone.”

The Phoenix (30-1, 17-1 Horizon League) enter Saturday’s game with the Cyclones having won 10 straight, including the Horizon League Tournament title, which they captured after a 66-53 win against Detroit on Sunday.

“Green Bay’s program is ridiculous with the numbers they’re putting up,” Fennelly said. “It’s a program that does it year in, year out and you don’t win 30 games before the tournament even starts without being pretty dang good, so we know what’s ahead of us.”

Green Bay finished the regular season ranked No. 10 in both the AP and Coaches polls. The Phoenix’s starting five features one of the nation’s top players in 6-foot senior guard Julie Wojta, the Horizon League player of the year. She leads the Phoenix into the NCAA tournament as their leading scorer and rebounder at 19.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game.

“Only the good players want to play the good teams, you don’t want to play these easy teams that you’ll beat by 20 because what are you getting out of it?” ISU freshman guard Brynn Williamson said. “You want to play teams that there is going to be a challenge there and I’m so happy that we get another chance to play at Hilton.”

Iowa State enters tournament play coming off a 67-63 quarterfinal loss in the Big 12 Tournament to Kansas State. In that game, All-Big 12 junior forward Chelsea Poppens battled foul trouble throughout, only scoring seven points and grabbing five rebounds in 23 minutes on the floor.

“After that loss we’re motivated to do better and motivated to prove that we’re better than what we were in the Big 12 in that game,” Poppens said. “We can play better than that and we’re just kind of excited to be in the NCAA tournament.”

Although they are the lower seed, the Cyclones will have the advantage of playing at home in the first round for the seventh time in program history.

The Cyclones are 10-2 all-time in NCAA tournament games at Hilton Coliseum — 6-0 in first-round games — including their last postseason contest at a Hilton, a 60-56 victory over Green Bay in the second round of the 2010 NCAA tournament.

“It’s like anything else, you hate to have a big party and not get invited after doing all the work,” Fennelly said. “We’re honored to be a part of it and now it’s time to go play, hopefully it will be a great weekend.

Tip time for Saturday night’s game is set for 5:30 p.m. The winner will play either No. 2 seed Kentucky or No. 15 seed McNeese State in the second round.