Stanford and Nebraska earn No. 1 seeds
Doug FeinbergStanford, the last team to beat Connecticut, has earned its first No. 1 seed since 1998 in the NCAA women's basketball tournament.
Undefeated Connecticut is expected to earn the No. 1 overall seed. UConn (33-0), which has won an NCAA record 72 straight games, will try to complete the sixth perfect season in women's basketball history as it goes for a seventh national championship.
UConn is looking to become the fifth team to win consecutive titles. Tennessee did it last in 2007 and 2008. The Huskies have run through their opponents this season winning by an average of 35 points.
The Cardinal (31-1) beat the Huskies in the semifinals of the 2008 NCAA tournament and will open this year's tournament hosting UC Riverside in the Sacramento region.
The Final Four will be held in San Antonio on April 4 and 6. When the city last hosted the championship in 2002, UConn won the first of three straight titles.
Nebraska garnered the first top seed in school history, buoyed by winning its first 30 games this season. The Cornhuskers were poised to enter the NCAA tournament undefeated but lost to Texas A&M in the Big 12 tournament semifinals.
Nebraska will open against Northern Illinois in the Kansas City region. UCLA and North Carolina State will face off in the eight-nine game. Other first-round matchups in the region include No. 5 Michigan State against Mid-American champion Bowling Green. No. 4 Kentucky will face Big South champion Liberty. In the other half of the region, sixth-seed Georgia Tech faces Arkansas-Little Rock, which is making its first tournament appearance. No. 3 Oklahoma faces South Dakota State.
Second-seed Notre Dame will host Cleveland State in its opener. Wisconsin plays America East winner Vermont in the other matchup.
Other first-round games in the Sacramento region are: No. 8 Iowa vs. No. 9 Rutgers; No. 5 Georgia vs. No. 12 Tulane; No. 4 Oklahoma State vs. No. 13 Chattanooga; No. 6 Vanderbilt vs. No. 11 DePaul; No. 3 Xavier vs. No. 14 East Tennessee State; No. 7 Gonzaga vs. No. 10 North Carolina; and No. 2 Texas A&M vs. No. 15 Portland State.