University of North Carolina Athletics
Top-Seeded Tar Heels Open NCAA Play In Nashville
March 13, 2006 | Women's Basketball
March 13, 2006
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- North Carolina has received a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship and will open play on Saturday with a game against 16th-seeded California-Riverside in Nashville, Tenn. Tipoff at Memorial Gymnasium is set for 8 p.m. EST.
UNC (29-1) is making its 18th NCAA Tournament appearance. The Tar Heels are a No. 1 seed for the third time in school history and the second year in a row. Joining UNC in the Cleveland Regional are Tennessee as the No. 2 seed, Rutgers as the No. 3 seed and Purdue as the No. 4 seed.
"I think our bracket is definitely the toughest, but we've played great teams all year and we'll be prepared," UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "Our team will be very motivated by the strength of our bracket. We'll use it as a positive to prepare for every game we play. I don't think there's any doubt the team that comes out of our bracket will be well-prepared for the Final Four."
Should Carolina win its first-round game, it would face the winner of No. 8 Vanderbilt and No. 9 Louisville in a second round on Monday. Host Vanderbilt and Louisville will play their first-round game 30 minutes after the end of the UNC-UC Riverside game.
UC Riverside is 16-14 on the season and gained an automatic bid by winning the Big West Conference tournament. The Highlanders are one of eight teams in the bracket making their first appearances in the NCAA field. The game will be the first meeting between UNC and UC Riverside.
The Tar Heels will depart for Nashville on Thursday. They last played at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gymnasium in the 1998 NCAA Tournament, when second-seeded UNC fell to top-seeded Tennessee in the Mideast Region final.
In Saturday's other games to be played in Nashville, eighth-seeded Minnesota plays ninth-seeded Washington at noon and No. 1 seed LSU meets No. 16 Florida Atlantic 30 minutes after the end of that game. The winners meet on Monday for a spot in the San Antonio Regional semifinals.
Monday's game times are TBA.
For ticket information, contact the UNC Ticket Office at (919) 962-2296 or (800) 722-HEEL.
