Five days after holding off the Belmont Bruins to advance to their first Sweet 16 in six years, the Tennessee Lady Vols have their toughest March Madness matchup yet this year. They no longer have home court advantage to deal with it either.
Kellie Harper’s No. 4 seed team will take on Jeff Walz’s No. 1 seed Louisville Cardinals in Kansas Saturday afternoon. Rocky Top beat the No. 13 seed Buffalo Bulls in addition to Belmont, who was a No. 12 seed and upset the No. 5 seed Oregon Ducks, last weekend.
Louisville comes into this game on the heels of wins over the No. 16 seed Albany Great Danes and the No. 9 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs. This is the fifth meeting between the two schools with the series tied 2-2. Here is all the information you need for the Lady Vols’ March Madness matchup.
Broadcast information
- TV: ESPN2
- Live stream: WatchESPN
- Radio: Lady Vol Network; UofL Radio Network
- Listen online: UTSports; Cards Radio 790AM WKRD (Louisville)
Rocky Top is on a quest to reach its first Final Four since its last national championship under Pat Summitt, back in 2008 with Candace Parker. If they reached the Elite Eight, it would be the same milestone as their last Sweet 16, as they made the Elite Eight in 2016 under Holly Warlick as well.
On the other hand, Louisville is looking to win its first national championship. Walz has taken them to three Final Fours and two national championship game appearances in 16 years with the program, but he has never been able to get over the hump.
Although the Lady Vols series with Louisville is tied, Louisville actually leads all-time in the postseason 2-0. The Cardinals beat them in the 2013 Elite Eight and in the second round of the 2017 tournament. It’ll be a difficult task for UT to end that skid, but that’s obviously their goal.
After this game, the winner will face the winner between the No. 3 seed Michigan Wolverines and the No. 10 seed South Dakota Coyotes in the Elite Eight on Monday to go to the Final Four. Michigan and South Dakota have their March Madness matchup shortly after the Lady Vols and Louisville finish playing.