Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball (27-4, 13-3 SEC) has officially been named as a No. 2 seed in the Fort Worth region of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The Commodores will take on the 15-seeded High Point Panthers in the Round of 64. Tipoff is scheduled for Saturday, March 21, with game time still to be announced.
As a top-four seed, Vanderbilt will host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2011-12 season. It also marks the third straight at-large bid to the tournament for the Commodores. Two years ago, Vanderbilt entered the field as a 12-seed and had to win a First Four play-in game against Columbia to reach the round of 64, where it fell to Baylor in the opening round. Last season, Vanderbilt earned a No. 7 seed and advanced directly to the first round before losing to Oregon.
Now, the Commodores return to the tournament in a very different position. After early exits in each of the last two seasons, Vanderbilt has established itself as one of the nation’s top teams and will look to break through the first-round hurdle this March.
“I feel like this past week has been the least stressful week of my life,” Sacha Washington said. “I’ve been in practice just like, ‘Okay guys, let’s just fine-tune some things.’ We don’t have to worry. So it’s definitely more of a relaxing feeling, coming in here knowing that we’re definitely in and we’re definitely hosting.”
Vanderbilt has had a historic season. The Commodores went 27-4 overall and 13-3 in SEC games. Their 27 wins set the school record for the most regular-season victories, and the 13 SEC wins also set a program record for most league victories in a season. The Black and Gold earned ranked wins over LSU, Michigan, Kentucky (twice), Oklahoma, Texas and Alabama, and have been ranked inside the top 10 in the AP and Coaches Poll for 10-straight weeks. They head into March Madness ranked No. 6 in both polls.
“We are so excited to host here at Vanderbilt. It was one of the goals of our season,” head coach Shea Ralph said. “The NCAA Tournament is the best sporting event in the world. We’re thrilled with the work that we’ve done this season to put ourselves in position to do well, but we’re really not looking past the first game. We can’t. It’s a one-game season now. So we’re excited to get to work to prepare for High Point and to get back out on the court in the coming days.”
The Commodores and the Panthers will square off with a spot in the Round of 32 on the line. The winner of the matchup will take on the victor of the game between 7-seed Illinois and 10-seed Colorado.
