ESPN/ESPN HD will broadcast Sunday’s NCAA Women’s Cleveland Regional semifinal between second seeded and sixth ranked Tennessee (30-4) and third seeded and ninth ranked Rutgers (27-4) beginning at 12 noon (Chattanooga Comcast 29 & 202) from the Quicken Loans Arena.
The Lady Vols (30-4) are an unprecedented 25 for 25 in Sweet 16 appearances since the inception of the women’s tournament a quarter century ago. The sixth-ranked Lady Vols have posted earlier round victories over Army and George Washington University as they are in pursuit of their seventh national championship and first since 1998.
Rutgers advanced by defeating Dartmouth and Texas Christian University.
The UT-Rutgers game will be a replay of last year’s Philadelphia Regional semifinal in which the Lady Vols triumphed 59-49 to earn their fourth straight trip to the Final Four and sixteenth overall.
The match up between the Southeastern Conference tournament champion Lady Vols and the Scarlet Knights the regular season Big East titlists features a pair of marquee names facing off for the first and last time in the college ranks.
SEC Freshman of the Year Candace Parker who became the first woman to complete a pair of slam dunks in a NCAA game Sunday in the first round win over Army and is averaging almost 17 points and over eight rebounds per game in leading the Lady Vols will encounter Naismith Award finalist and fifth year senior point guard. Cappie Pondexter. Pondexter is averaging 21.5 points per game which ties her for sixth nationally and scored 24 points in Rutgers’ 82-48 shellacking of TCU.
The winner of the Tennessee-Rutgers game will play the winner of the North Carolina-Purdue game for the right to proceed to the Final Four in Boston.
UNC, the nation’s number one team, is the top seed in the Cleveland Regional while Purdue is the fourth seeded team.
Wendy King
tnwendy1@comcast.net
Shanna Zolman
- Photo2 by William Ewart