Women’s Hoops Celebrate Senior Day Sunday

Women’s Hoops Celebrate Senior Day Sunday

2/24/2006

Two Squads Search For Eighth League Win As Commodores Celebrate Senior Day

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Vanderbilt women’s basketball team plays host to Southeastern Conference rival South Carolina on Sunday, Feb. 26, in a game that features two teams with identical 7-6 conference records. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. CT at Memorial Gymnasium.

All children 12 and under at Sunday’s game will receive a voucher good for a free hot dog and drink courtesy of Vanderbilt Athletics. Following the game, the Commodores will honor their departing seniors — guard Erica Grimaldi and center Nicole Jules.

Sunday’s game holds major implications for postseason seeding heading into next week’s SEC Tournament. Kentucky (8-5) currently sits in fourth place in the SEC, narrowly holding on to a potential first-round bye in the conference tournament.

A VU win Sunday guarantees the Commodores no worse than sixth place in the league. A loss by Kentucky (vs. Alabama) or Florida (at Tennessee) would then move Vanderbilt up to fifth place, with the Commodores jumping into fourth position if both the Wildcats and Lady Gators fall.

A win by South Carolina would drop the Commodores into seventh place in the league, while boosting the Gamecocks to the fifth position. South Carolina holds the tiebreaker (head-to-head) against Florida (7-6), but not Kentucky.

The Gamecocks are riding a five-game winning streak into the Music City. Sunday’s game will be their fourth in eight days. After opening their league schedule with four straight losses, the Gamecocks have seven of their last nine conference matchups.

Vanderbilt, one of only three teams in the conference to not visit an opponent’s Senior Day this season, stopped a four-game winning streak by defeating Kentucky, 72-55, on Thursday.

This coming week, Vanderbilt travels to the Alltel Arena in Little Rock, Ark., site of the 2006 Southeastern Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament (March 2-5). The preliminary games will be broadcast by FSN South, with Sunday’s championship airing on ESPN2.

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