University of Tennessee Athletics
LADY VOLS TAKE ON MARIST, THE NCAA TOURNAMENT'S CINDERELLA TEAM
March 24, 2007 | Women's Basketball
March 24, 2007
A pair of improbable wins have put Marist into uncharted territory in just its third NCAA tournament appearance.
For the Red Foxes to continue their run, though, they'll have to pull off an even bigger upset against top-seeded Tennessee when the teams meet Sunday in the regional semifinals at Dayton, Ohio.
This is the first trip to the round of 16 for 13th-seeded Marist (29-5), which lost in the first round of the tournament in 2004 and 2006. The Red Foxes' surprise showing has earned the respect of one of the NCAA's most decorated women's coaches.
"Coach (Brian) Giorgis has done a great job of preparing them," said Tennessee's Pat Summitt, who is taking the Lady Vols to their 26th consecutive round of 16 appearance. "Their composure, I'm so impressed with that. ... They kept their focus and played together. Certainly to be a 13 seed and be in the Sweet 16 speaks in a tremendous way for what this team not only has done but can do."
Marist faces the Volunteers (30-3) after becoming the first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference team to win an NCAA tournament game with a 67-63 victory over No. 4 seed Ohio State in the opening round. Two days later, the Red Foxes beat fifth-seeded Middle Tennessee State 73-59, ending the Blue Raiders' 27-game win streak.
Nikki Flores had 21 points and Julianne Viani and Meg Dahlman added 13 apiece in Marist's eighth straight win. Leading scorer Rachele Fitz had 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks.
"The attention the school has received has been unbelievable," Giorgis said. "You can't turn around without a voicemail, text message, e-mail waiting for you. People stopping you on the street to offer their congratulations."
Giorgis' team faces a tough task, however. Tennessee has never lost in the tournament to a seed lower than four and has won 21 of its last 25 trips to the round of 16.
"Even if we lose, we've had a great run," Marist starting guard Alisa Kresge said. "Something that we will always remember."
For the Volunteers, just getting to this point isn't enough. They lost in the regional finals last year and haven't won a national championship since 1998.
"I think they are a very focused team. There's no doubt in my mind where they want to be. They want to be (in the Final Four) in Cleveland," Summitt said.
The Lady Vols routed Drake 76-37 in their tournament opener and defeated Pittsburgh 68-54 in the second round on Tuesday behind Candace Parker's 30 points and 12 rebounds.
Parker was limited to just four points in a 63-54 loss to LSU in the SEC tournament on March 3 and was held to 13 against Drake before shooting 13-for-16 from the field Tuesday.
"With the play of Candace, that has been tremendous from last year to this year to see Parker develop her skills, composure and toughness," Summitt said. "She is much more aggressive on the offensive end."
Marist is just the third 13th seed to advance to the round of 16 since the tournament field was expanded to 64, joining Texas A&M in 1994 and Liberty in 2005.
The winner of this game will face No. 3 seed Oklahoma or seventh-seeded Mississippi on Tuesday.
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - In case you haven't hopped on the Marist bandwagon yet, there's still room.
"A lot of people have jumped on it and hopefully there's a lot more," coach Brian Giorgis said Saturday during his team's preparations for taking on top-seeded and heavily favored Tennessee in a regional semifinal on Sunday afternoon at the University of Dayton Arena. "Our country's always been one that likes the underdog. I don't think there's probably a bigger one than us right now in either tournament."
Marist's Red Foxes (29-5) find themselves as the fans' favorite because there have been so few major NCAA upsets this season. They are only the third No. 13 seed to ever get this far in the women's tournament.
The 4,000-student college in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., shocked fourth-seeded Ohio State in the first round, 67-63, then turned around and upended fifth-seeded Middle Tennessee State 73-59, ending the Blue Raiders' nation's-best 27-game winning streak.
Those are just ripples on the seismograph compared to what would happen if they were to find a way to stun the mighty Volunteers.
The Volunteers know there is a groundswell of support for the little school that could.
"We are aware of the fact that there are a lot of people rooting for Marist," Tennessee's Nicky Anosike said. "There are always people who want us to lose because of our winning tradition, but it's nothing we haven't seen before. We've played in hostile environments before where the whole gym is against us. We're prepared for anything and prepared for people who want us to lose."
Think the Vols might have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder? A paragraph in their postseason media guide - which is thicker than the Knoxville phone book - bears the headline, "Love us, hate us ... gotta respect us."
Giorgis doesn't get the feeling that his team is ready to rest just yet.
"That's the great thing about this program," he said. "It doesn't look at numbers or names on the front of uniforms. They just like to go out and play. They say, 'Coach, what's the game plan?' and then they go out and try to execute it."
Tennessee (30-3) is used to the rarified air of the regionals. While Marist is there for the first time, the Volunteers have made it a rite of spring. They've advanced to the round of 16 all 26 years the NCAA has had a tournament, winning 21 of those 25 games.
Coach Pat Summitt, who is just 57 wins away from a thousand in her career, said every surprise in the tournament serves as a cautionary tale to the big-name programs.
"When you're a coach, you see the upsets and then go to the gym and say, 'We can't let this happen,"' she said. "It's a great warning sign."
The Volunteers have all the ingredients to stave off a shocker. Candace Parker, perhaps the premier player in the college game, averages 19.8 points and 9.7 rebounds. Sidney Spencer adds 11.5 points and Alexis Hornbuckle another 10.7.
They haven't truly been upset this season, with their losses coming to No. 2 North Carolina, No. 1 Duke and No. 11 LSU.
There's no way Tennessee will look past the Red Foxes, Parker said.
"This is the NCAA tourney. This is what you dream of since you were a little kid," she said. "So I feel it's my responsibility to bring energy to the floor and be a defensive presence."
Marist will counter with an undersized lineup that scrambles around on defense and shoots the lights out behind the arc. The Red Foxes are hitting 46 percent of their 3-pointers in the glaring lights of the NCAA tournament.
"They think they can win," Giorgis said. "That's half the battle. It's why we play the Dukes and the Marylands and UConns. The kids feel they can play with somebody. That's important.
"We like to say we like to be pains to people."
Twice, yes. But three times in one tournament?
