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News With Commentary by TSL Staff Sunday, March 14, 2004
Tech Women Seeded 8th in NCAA's Virginia Tech's women's basketball team will be seeded eighth in the NCAA Tournament and will play ninth-seeded Iowa in a first round game in Blacksburg on Sunday, March 21st. The other first round game will pit #1 seeded Penn State against 16th-seeded Hampton. The winners will square off for a Sweet 16 spot on Tuesday March 23rd. Game times have not yet been set. The NCAA invitation is the 7th for the Hokie women's team, who of course reached their high-water mark in NCAA Tournaments in 1999, when they advanced to the Sweet 16. The bid is also Tech's fifth under Bonnie Henrickson, who has coached at VT for the last seven years. Virginia Tech and Iowa (16-12, 10-6 in the Big Ten, fifth place) have never met on the court, but the two schools have ties. Henrickson coached as an assistant at Iowa from 1995-1997, and current VT assistant coach Karen Lange played at Iowa from 1992-1996, as Karen Clayton. Iowa is 16-14 all time in the NCAAs and has never lost a first round game (7-0). This invitation is their 15th to the NCAAs. Virginia Tech is 5-1 in first round games, never having lost a first-round game under Henrickson. In the four NCAA appearances under Henrickson, a top-12 ranked team has knocked the Hokies out each time. 1998: VT 75, #24 Wisconsin 64; #12 Florida 89, VT 57. VT's 8th seeding is roughly in line with their RPI rating of 28. Iowa has an RPI rating of 40. Times and TV info will be released Monday. Top-seeded Penn State is ranked #4 by the Associated Press and enters the tournament with a #3 RPI rating and a 25-5 record (15-1 Big Ten, first place). #16 seeded Hampton (17-12) just won their second consecutive MEAC championship. This will be Hampton's third trip to the NCAA Tournament since moving up to Division 1A during the 1995-96 season. See hokiesports.com for ticket info. NCAA Women's
NCAA brackets (PDF format) |
