PRINCETON, N.J. — After a stellar season of Ivy League women's basketball, both Princeton and Columbia earned berths to the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament, marking the first time since 2016 that two Ivy League teams have been selected to the tournament.
Princeton (25-4, 13-1 Ivy) was the first Ivy to hear their name called on Selection Sunday after earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament following their title win in the Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament. The Tigers earned the nine seed in the Albany 2 region and will take on No. 8 West Virginia in the first round in Iowa City, Iowa. If the Tigers manage to advance past the Mountaineers, a matchup with Caitlin Clark and the No. 1 seed Iowa Hawkeyes await.
Columbia (23-6, 13-1 Ivy) earned an at-large selection to the tournament following an impressive 2023-24 campaign. The Lions became the first Ivy League team to receive an at-large selection since Princeton did so back in 2016, earning a No. 12 seed and matchup against 12
th seeded Vanderbilt in the First Four. The NCAA Tournament berth marks the first one in Columbia program history.
The selections come after a season that saw both Princeton and Columbia receive recognition in national weekly polls throughout the season as the league recorded 10 wins over the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12 combined. The league also won six games over NCAA Tournament teams from last season, and had seven wins against the Atlantic-10, Mountain West, Conference-USA, and American.
In addition, Ivies scheduled tough competition this season as the league played against nine ranked opponents, including No. 4 Ohio State, No. 7 UCLA, No. 12 Indiana, No. 17 Baylor, No. 19 Oklahoma, and No. 20 Syracuse.
Game times and dates are still to be determined.