LA JOLLA, Calif.— Big West Champion UC San Diego is the 14-seed, and the Tritons will take on host TCU in the NCAA Tournament first round Friday in Fort Worth, Texas. The Horned Frogs (29-5) are the No. 3 seed in the Sacramento Regional.
UC San Diego (24-8) captured its second consecutive Big West Championship title Saturday, downing Hawai'i in Henderson, Nev.
Makayla Rose was named tournament's most valuable player as UC San Diego moved to 5-0 all-time in The Big West's annual tournament.
The Tritons are making their second consecutive appearance in the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship in only their second year of being postseason eligible following a four-year reclassification period from NCAA Division II. In the DII era, the Tritons appeared in the bracket 13 times and advanced to the national semifinals in 2007.
"I think we have great maturity, I think we are polished," said UC San Diego head coach
Heidi VanDerveer. "We have great leadership from the five people who play the majority of our minutes, our guards whether it's
Dymonique Maxie or
Makayla Rose or
Sabrina Ma to
Erin Condron to
Rosa Smith. I think they are focused, and driven and resilient, and you saw that in our Hawai'i game. They just want to keep playing with each other which I think is a mark of a championship team. A lot of teams like playing with each other, but this team really plays for each other."
This will be the first-ever meeting between UC San Diego and TCU in women's basketball. The winner of Friday's matchup will take on 6-seed Washington and No. 11 South Dakota State.
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 24-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in NCAA Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.
