SPORTS BRIEF: Women’s Basketball Faces Maryland in Round One of NCAA Tournament

The NCAA Selection Committee picked the women’s basketball team as the No. 15 seed in the Dayton Regional of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament last night. Harvard will play defending national champion Maryland, who was named the No. 2 team in arguably the strongest of the four divisions of the 64-team tournament.

The first-round game between the Crimson and the Terrapins will take place Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Conn.

The team’s placement as a No. 15 seed was a surprise to everyone at Donoghue’s Sports Bar and Restaurant in Watertown, where Harvard players and coaches assembled to watch the Selection Show. The Crimson was projected to be a No. 16 seed, playing against one of the nation’s top four teams: North Carolina, Tennessee, Connecticut, or Duke.

Harvard had to wait until the last possible minute to hear its placement, as Dayton was the last of the four brackets announced. The room erupted with surprised cheers as Drake was introduced as the fourth No. 16 seed, sealing Harvard’s placement as a 15 seed.

“I didn’t pay much attention to “Bracketology” or the coverage, but I thought we were a 16 [seed] all the way,” coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “But I’m thrilled to be playing the national champions.”

Maryland will be an extremely tough matchup defensively for the Crimson—all five Terrapin starters are averaging double figures, and the team’s 82.6 points per game rank second nationally in scoring offense. Junior center Crystal Langhorne leads the team in points and rebounds, while sophomore guard Kristi Tolliver has a deadly touch from outside.

“It’s a little intimidating,” co-captain Christiana Lackner said of playing the defending champions. “But we work just as hard as they do, and we think we can play with them.”

—EMILY W. CUNNINGHAM