Fresno State has been waiting for this, a chance to return to the Women's NCAA Tournament.

Even if making basketball's Big Dance has become a routine.

"We have some unfinished business there," Bulldogs star Ki-Ki Moore said.

For six straight seasons, Fresno State has reached the Tournament. And for the five previous seasons, it was eliminated after one game.

But maybe a first-year coach and the change of systems will do the trick.

Fresno State (24-8), in its first year under coach Raegan Pebley, was given the No. 15 seed in the Spokane Regional and will face No. 2 Cal (28-3) in the first round at 1:20 p.m. Saturday as part of a pod of games in Lubbock, Texas.

A relaxed room of players and coaches got excited when Fresno State was mentioned early during Monday's NCAA selection show. The Spokane Regional was the first to be unveiled.

But the Bulldogs seemed to tone it down a bit compared to past selection days. And perhaps that's because they want to focus on taking the next step as a program and win an NCAA Tournament game for the first time.

"We've been trying to do that all year," Pebley said. "You just can't think of or start planning for that now. It had to have been part of the plans all season. So we're ready. We're ready for this next stage."

Last year, Fresno State made its best run at an NCAA Tourney win to date before losing 61-56 to Georgetown. In 2011, Fresno State fell to North Carolina 82-68, and before that to Baylor 69-55 and Cal 70-47. Baylor also ended the Bulldogs' first trip, 88-67, in 2008.

"It's been exciting to get this far, but it's also been frustrating at the same time to not get over that hump," senior Rosie Moult said. "We've gotten closer. It'd be the best if we could win at least one this final year of mine, feel like we were able to take the program to the next level."

Fresno State and Cal haven't met since that 2009 Tournament game. Cal, which leads the series 21-5, will be the fifth Pac-12 team that Fresno State has faced this season.

The Bulldogs lost 72-61 in the opener at Stanford, beat Washington State 82-59 and USC 65-50 at home, and lost at Oregon 65-64.

Cal, in its second season under Lindsay Gottlieb, finished No. 6 in Monday's final Associated Press Top 25 poll.

The Bears are averaging 71.6 points per game (21st in the nation) while allowing 56.8. Cal isn't a great 3-point shooting team at 30.3%. But the Bears are one of the best at rebounding, owning a margin of plus-11.6, which is third in the country.

Senior guard Layshia Clarendon is averaging 15.6 points and 6-foot-2 junior Gennifer Brandon 11.2 rebounds.

Cal's only losses this season came at Duke (77-63), versus Stanford (62-53) and in the Pac-12 tournament against UCLA (70-58). Cal is the only non-No. 1 in the country to defeat one of the top four seeds. Cal beat Stanford -- Spokane's No. 1 seed -- 67-55 to end the Cardinal's 81-game conference winning streak in Pac-12 play.

The Fresno State-Cal winner will advance to face No. 7 Texas Tech (21-10) or No. 10 South Florida (21-10) on Monday.

The Bulldogs were the only Mountain West Conference team to advance to the NCAA Tournament -- a feat accomplished in their first season in the league.

Fresno State upset San Diego State 76-70 in the conference tournament championship Saturday to secure an automatic NCAA bid. The Bulldogs have won seven straight and 14 of their past 16 games.

"I like the way we've been clicking lately," Moore said. "We've played a lot of other Pac-12 teams this season -- beat some of them and played some of them close -- and I think that'll help us against Cal.