Women's Basketball

No. 21 Rice To Face Marquette in NCAA First Round

DALLAS – Conference USA Champion and No. 21 Rice, a 12th seed, will play No. 5 and 18th-ranked Marquette at 1 p.m. CT Friday, March 22, in College Station, Texas, as part of the Chicago Regional of the 2019 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2. Should Rice win, the Owls would face the winner of host No. 4 Texas A&M and No. 13 Wright State on Sunday. 

NCAA Championship Bracket 

The Owls (28-3) earned C-USA's automatic berth to the Big Dance on Saturday, when the team defeated Middle Tennessee to claim its first C-USA postseason crown. It was the second title Rice had earned after rattling off a perfect 16-0 record in conference play to earn its first C-USA Regular-Season Championship.

The appearance will be Rice’s third trip to the NCAA Championship and the first since 2005. The team punched its first ticket in 2000 on the heels of a WAC Championship and returned five years later after garnering the WAC regular-season and tournament titles.

The squad entered the AP Top 25 for the first time ever on Feb. 18 and earned its highest ranking on Monday morning at No. 21. The Owls are riding a 21-game win streak into the NCAA tourney, which marks the third-longest active streak in the nation. One more win would secure yet another program record.

Marquette (26-7) received an at-large berth, its third-straight ticket to the NCAA Tournament and will make the program’s 12th appearance in school history. The No. 5 seed matches the highest the team has ever received, last being earned in 2017. The Golden Eagles are 0-1 as a five seed and 5-11 all-time in the NCAA Championship. Marquette won its first-round matchup over No. 9 Dayton in 2018 as a No. 8 seed and was upended by top-seeded Louisville in the second round. It marked the first NCAA victory for the school.

Marquette seized the BIG EAST Regular-Season Championship for the second year in a row and is coming off of a loss to DePaul in the league tournament title game. The Golden Eagles advanced to the final for the third-straight season.