For the second-straight season and the 15th time overall, UT will play host to the NCAA Women’s Basketball First and Second Rounds. Knoxville was chosen as one of 16 sites for the 2014 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, as selected by the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee.
Other cities chosen to host first- and second-round games in 2014 include Ames, Ia.; Baton Rouge, La.; Chapel Hill, N.C.; College Park, Md.; College Station, Tx.; Durham, N.C.; Iowa City, Ia.; Lexington, Ky.; Los Angeles, Ca.; Seattle, Wa.; Storrs, Ct.; Toledo, Ohio; University Park, Pa.; Waco, Tx.; and West Lafayette, In.
The four selected regional sites are Lincoln, Ne.; Louisville, Ky.; Notre Dame, In., and Stanford, Ca. The 2014 NCAA Women’s Final Four, as previously announced, will be contested at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
Tennessee is the only school to appear in all 32 NCAA women’s tournaments and sports a 50-1 all-time record in first- and second-round action, including a 40-0 mark at home in those rounds. The Lady Vols have played host in three of the past four seasons, excluding 2012, defeating Oral Roberts and Creighton in Knoxville a year ago. UT returns three starters and seven letterwinners from last season’s 27-8 Elite Eight squad.
Toledo will be hosting Division I Women’s Basketball Championship play for the first time, while Los Angeles’ Pauley Pavilion, which hosted the 1984 NCAA Women’s Final Four, will see championship play for the first time since 1999. Lexington, which will host first- and second-round action, will be involved in championship play for the first time since the 1986 Women’s Final Four.
“The committee continues to look for ways to create a better in-arena atmosphere for our student-athletes, improve attendance and enhance the broadcast look of the games,” said Carolayne Henry, chairwoman of the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee and senior associate commissioner/senior woman administrator at the Mountain West Conference. “The 2014 championship presented us with a unique opportunity for our institutional hosts during the regional rounds of play. The committee is continuing to look at other host and format options that make sense for our championship going into 2015 and beyond.”
NCAA First- and Second-Round sites will host games either Saturday, March 22, and Monday, March 24 or Sunday, March 23, and Tuesday, March 25, 2014 (dates to be determined).