15-Seed UC Davis Women's Basketball To Take On 2-Seed Stanford Saturday
DAVIS (CBS13) — The UC Davis women's basketball team is ready for March Madness and they found out who they will play in the first round of the tournament Monday evening, but the big news did not come as expected.
There was a lot of excitement and buildup that deflated Monday afternoon when the brackets were leaked. The 15-seed Aggies will play 2-seed Stanford on Saturday, but the way they found out was unexpected.
The plan for the team was to have a big watch party at Woodstock's Pizza in Davis to find out where they were headed for the NCAA tournament. More than two hours before the selection show, ESPN released the brackets early by mistake.
"We actually were in our living room, we're getting our final essays in and studying for finals and then all of a sudden one of my roommates were like 'Oh my gosh! Did you see they released the brackets?'" said forward Sophia Song.
Star forward Morgan Bertsch said she had just finished a final for her engineering 190 class when she found out.
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Coach Jennifer Gross said she was in the office with her staff trying to pull footage of the team's possible opponents when the brackets were leaked. Turns out, Stanford was not on their list.
The Aggies are going up against the two-seed Cardinal team that they lost to by 28 points to open this season.
A 15-seed has never beat a two-seed in the women's tournament, but Bertsch said that will change with their game on Saturday.
Despite the leak, the Aggies came to celebrate with their fans — there was just one problem. They waited and waited but their bracket did not air on ESPN.
"A little bit of a bummer," said guard Karley Eaton. "I know my family is watching at home too and they wanted to see our name pop up. But I don't think it takes away from the moment."
The Aggies thought they would be seeded a little higher, but they are happy to be playing in Palo Alto. It's a game many of their friends and fans can make.
You can watch the Aggies take on the Cardinal at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
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