March 15, 2010
Vanderbilt’s NCAA Ticket Information | View NCAA Bracket
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Vanderbilt women’s basketball team has earned a No. 6 seed in the Sacramento Region and will face DePaul on Sunday, March 21, at 12:11 p.m. ET inside the Cintas Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Commodores have made the NCAA Tournament for the school-record 11th straight season and the 23rd time overall. Last season, Vanderbilt advanced to its 14th NCAA Sweet 16, the program’s sixth regional semifinal in nine seasons.
The Commodores and No. 11 seed DePaul will be joined in Cincinnati by No. 14 ETSU and No. 3 Xavier, the venue’s host. The winners of those two matchups will play on Tuesday, March 23, for a chance to advance to the Sweet 16 in Sacramento.
The top seed in the Sacramento Region is Stanford, who will open at home against UC Riverside. Iowa and Rutgers will play the 8/9 game in Palo Alto, Calif.
Opening round sites Tempe and Seattle will also feed Sacramento.
Playing in Seattle, Texas A&M is the No. 2 seed against No. 15 Portland State. No. 7 Gonzaga and No. 10 North Carolina will also face off the first round. In Tempe, No. 4 Oklahoma State plays No. 13 UT-Chattanooga while No. 5 Georgia faces No. 12 Tulane.
This year’s NCAA first and second rounds will be a homecoming for a pair of Commodores that grew up in Cincinnati — senior Ashlee Bridge (Princeton) and freshman Gabby Smith (Mount Notre Dame). The weekend will also be a return for Melanie Balcomb, who won 135 games in seven years as the Head Coach at Xavier (1995-2002).
Now in her eighth season in Nashville, Balcomb’s Commodores are 7-0 in the NCAA First Round games and 4-3 in second round contests.
Vanderbilt faced 11 NCAA Tournament teams during the 2009-10 regular season, including possible second-round opponent ETSU. The Commodores defeated the Atlantic Sun champions, 96-83, in Nashville.
The complete bracket of 64 teams is available here: http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/tournament/bracket