Four No. 1 seeds, one national champion: March Madness
The No. 1 seeds compete for a spot in the 2026 NCAA Division I National Championship.
The NCAA Division I women’s college basketball Final Four has arrived with limited Madness as the four teams standing are the same four teams that have told their doubters all year: the top belongs to them.
UConn, UCLA, Texas, and South Carolina have met expectations and fought to reach the national semifinals — now they must beat each other. This rare setup promises wildly exciting basketball to finish the tournament.
UCLA has been one of the most dominant teams all year. The Bruins have proven that they have the deepest bench to support their star players, but they aren’t unbeatable. The Bruins only lost once their entire regular season, and it was to the team that might be the one to keep them from securing the trophy: UConn.
The Huskies are the only undefeated team in the bracket. They have trampled on every team that has tried to get in the way of their National Championship. This Friday night, South Carolina will try to beat the unbeatable.
On the other side, the Bruins will face Texas, who has been dominant all season in hopes of bringing the trophy home to the Lone Star State. The Longhorns didn’t give Michigan a chance in their Elite Eight matchup, propelling themselves to the Final Four in front of their home crowd in Fort Worth.
The only team that was able to startle UCLA was Duke. The Blue Devils held on to a small lead, until the Bruins executed their strategic playbook. They snapped out of the hypnotic Blue Devils pace and regained control midway through the third quarter landing a few 3s from the arc and finding easy layups under the bucket.
Texas has earned themselves the nickname “The Comeback Queens.” UCLA versus Texas could come down to the final few possessions, and one layup or free throw could determine the entire outcome of the game.
Thank you for reading Female Athlete News. Clara Romae Slowinski is a student-intern at Penn State University.