Iowa Women Earn Two Seed, Host NCAA Tournament Rounds 1 and 2

The Iowa Hawkeyes women’s team closed out the the season with a bang as they brought home a Big Ten Tournament Championship to go with their shared regular season title. Now the Hawkeyes move forward in March looking to keep the madness going.

On Selection Sunday, there was no doubting Iowa would be in the big dance - the only question was whether the Hawkeye would earn a high enough seed to host the first two rounds in Iowa City. The answer was a resounding yes as your Iowa Hawkeyes earned a two seed.

The Hawkeyes, who finished the season 23-7 and 14-4 in the Big Ten, will face off with the 15th seeded Illinois State Redbirds on Friday, March 18th. The Redbirds finished the regular season 19-13 overall and 12-6 in the MVC, where they finished fourth. But ISU got hot at the right time and ultimately took down Northern Illinois to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship and earn and automatic bid.

It will be a short trip for the Redbirds in the first round as they will be playing in Iowa City. They’ll be joined in Carver by 7 seed Colorado and 10 seed Creighton. Both round one games will be played on Friday with tip times yet to be announced. All games will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks.

In the same regional, the Iowa State Cyclones earned a three seed. That means they’ll play host in Ames for two rounds of games as well before setting up a potential showdown in the Sweet Sixteen in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The Hawkeyes and Cyclones faced off in the regular season back in early December. The Cyclones emerged victorious 77-70 in a game played in Ames. If Iowa State wants a rematch of that one, they’ll need to get through the University of Texas-Arlington and the winner of 6 seed Georgia and a play in game for the 11 seed featuring Dayton and DePaul.

Here’s a look at the full women’s NCAA Tournament bracket.

Image via CBSSports.com

Tickets to the first two rounds of games in Iowa City are available for purchase on HawkeyesSports.com. Adult tickets are $16 with senior citizens, UI students and youth tickets just $8.

Full previews for all matchups with updated information on tip time and broadcast information will be published when available.