No. 3 seed Lady Vols will host Liberty Friday in NCAA tourament

KNOXVILLE — Tennessee earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament bracket announced Monday evening.

The Lady Vols (24-7) will play No. 14 seed Liberty University in Knoxville at 2:30 p.m. Friday in the tournament’s opening round.

Liberty (24-9) won the Big

South tournament to secure an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Whoever wins the game between Tennessee and Liberty will advance to Sunday’s second round and play the winner between sixth-seeded Oregon State and 11th-seeded Western Kentucky.

The games in Knoxville are part of the Lexington, Ky., Regional. Louisville is the No. 1 seed in the regional while Baylor is the No. 2 seed.

Tennessee, in its sixth year under head coach Holly Warlick, lost in the second round of last year’s NCAA tournament after making the Elite Eight three of four years before.

This is the first time since 1997 that Tennessee has been a No. 3 seed. The Lady Vols went on to win the national championship that year.

Longtime Cleveland State Community College coach Dan Lumpkin joined the Liberty staff this year as director of player development.