Presbyterian and Vanderbilt Advance to 1st Round

Presbyterian and Vanderbilt both won their First Four games to advance to the 1st Round of the NCAA Women’s March Madness tournament.

Regional 1 Albany

#16 Presbyterian faced #16 Sacred Heart and won by a final score of 49-42 in their first-ever NCAA Tournament game. The Blue Hose were led by Mara Neira in both points (14) and rebounds (6). On the opposite end, the Pioneers’ Ny’Ceara Pryor led the team with 12 points and Nalyce Dudley fell just short of a double-double with 10 rebounds and 9 points.

This was Sacred Heart’s fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament after qualifying with the automatic bid by winning NEC titles in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2023 and 2024.

Presbyterian has an uphill battle ahead with their next opponent coming as the tournament favorite, South Carolina Gamecocks. According to ESPN’s Women’s Tournament Challenge 36.3% of all brackets picked South Carolina as the champion. This is above the next highest team picked with Iowa at 28.8% and UConn at 4.7%.

Presbyterian will be looking for some March magic to make this improbable upset a reality. The feat was only ever accomplished one time when No. 16 Harvard upset Number 1 Stanford in the first round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament.

Regional 2 Albany

#16 Holy Cross and #16 UT face off on March 21 at 9pm. The winner will advance to play #1 Iowa on Iowa’s home court.

Regional 3 Portland

#11 Auburn and #11 Arizona play on March 21 at 7pm. The winner will advance to play #6 Syracuse.

The final first four game was also in Region 3 Portland. #12 Vanderbilt defeated #12 Columbia by a score of 72-68.

Vanderbilt was led by Iyana Moore with 22 points and Sacha Washington with 15 rebounds. Jordyn Cambridge contributed 4 assists. Columbia was led by Kitty Henderson with 20 points and 9 rebounds and Cecelia Collins with 5 assists. The Lions earned their first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history despite falling to Princeton in the Ivy League Championship. While, Vanderbilt earned its first bid into the big dance since the 2013-2014 season. The team finished sixth in the SEC.

Regional 4 Portland

This quadrant of the bracket has been set from the start.

The March Madness First round begins on March 22.

You can like The Game Haus on Facebook and follow us on X for more sports and esports articles from great TGH writers!