Lady Bisons to play Vanderbilt in NCAA tourney opener
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Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament MVP Katie Beth Pate (in action against Texas A&M), will lead the Lady Bisons into the NCAA Tournament against Vanderbilt on Saturday. |
The Lady Bisons will play Saturday, March 20 at 12:30 p.m. CST at UT-Chattanooga in a game to be broadcast live on ESPN 2.
Day session tickets are $20 and include three games. Lipscomb has an allotment of 200 tickets. To reserve tickets, call 615.279.5899.
The Lady Bisons and the Lipscomb staff learned of their #15 seeding and first-round foe while gathered in Allen Arena's Hall of Fame Room Sunday to watch the bracket selection show.
"This is something that was a complete surprise for us. Going to Chattanooga is great for our fans. And, of course, there is great local interest that we are playing Vanderbilt, said Head Coach Frank Bennett.
"To get a 15 seed instead of a 16 is a great honor for our program in its first year of tournament eligibility. There were a lot of cheers and applause when Colgate was seeded 16th. I think being seeded 15th was a surprise for everybody."
Senior point guard Kendra Ramsey has been at Lipscomb since its first year of NCAA competition.
"When I first started here this was such a faraway dream that it really hurt thinking about it, knowing we couldn't compete in the postseason for three years. We knew we had a chance in the A-Sun Conference. We put it all together and won it."
Vanderbilt and Lipscomb players have played a lot of pick-up games this past summer together. Kendra Ramsey, Courtney Boynton, Katie-Beth Pate, Lynn Roller, Julie Martin, and redshirt Dana Carrigan all played last summer with Vanderbilt.
"Having played them this summer we kind of know how they play. It's a sigh of relief to play someone we are familiar with. I never even considered we would play Vanderbilt," said Boynton.
"This is huge to play Vanderbilt. This is like the best 24 hours ever. We know who they are and what they are about because we played against them all summer. They are obviously a very good team that won the SEC Tournament. They have seen us play and we have seen them play so there is some mutual respect there. There is going to be a ton of hype about this game," said Pate.
Bennett and assistants Billy Snell, Cheryl Smith, and Julie Bigler have a big week ahead, preparing for a team that they haven't seen play before.
"I have not seen Vanderbilt play very much. We are going to have to get some tapes. With three teams from Tennessee at that site it should be a great crowd," said Bennett.
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