Courtesy: Duke Sports Information http://www.goduke.com The Blue Devils garnered a No. 1 seed for the sixth time in school history

DURHAM, N.C.  – The top-ranked Duke women's basketball team received its 13th straight NCAA Tournament selection on Monday.  The Blue Devils were seeded No. 1 in the Greensboro Region and will play Holy Cross in the first round on Sunday, March 18, in Raleigh, N.C.

Duke (30-1), who received an at-large selection, will battle 16th-seeded Holy Cross on Sunday at the RBC Center at 7:00 p.m., on ESPN2.  Holy Cross (15-17) received the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by defeating American (56-48), in the Patriot League Championship game on March 7.  The appearance for the Crusaders is the 12th in school history.  Holy Cross enters the NCAA Tournament winners of six straight games.

Duke is coming off falling in the semifinals of the ACC Championship to 24th-ranked N.C. State, 70-65, breaking the Blue Devils’ 30-game winning streak to open the 2006-07 campaign.  The Blue Devils received a No. 1 seed for the sixth time in school history and the sixth time over the last seven years.  Duke has advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 each of the last nine years, made five consecutive Elite Eight appearances and reached the NCAA Final Four in 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2006. 

The Blue Devils and Crusaders will meet for the fourth time in school history as Duke leads the series with a 3-0 mark.  It will mark the third straight year the Blue Devils and Crusaders will meet.  In 2005 Holy Cross traveled to Durham and fell 101-42 and last year Duke played at Holy Cross and picked up an 84-36 victory.

Duke will play a NCAA Tournament game in Raleigh, N.C., for the third time in school history. The Blue Devils knocked off Texas and South Carolina in 2002 to advance to the NCAA Final Four.  Overall, Duke has played three contests in RBC Center as the Blue Devils knocked off fifth-ranked Purdue, 93-63, in the 2003 Jimmy V Women’s Basketball Classic.

The winner of the Duke/Holy Cross contest will advance to play the winner of the eighth-seeded Temple (24-7) and ninth-seeded Nebraska (22-9) contest on Tuesday, March 20.  The Owls will be making their sixth NCAA Tournament appearance, while the Huskers received their seventh NCAA Tournament selection.

Duke’s six No. 1 seeds since 2001 is the most in the nation, while the Blue Devils have posted the third-best win total over the last eight years in the NCAA Tournament.  With 28 victories, Duke ranks behind Connecticut (35) and Tennessee (31).  The Blue Devils are one of only three teams along with the Lady Vols and Huskies to have advanced to the Sweet 16 the last nine consecutive years. 

Tickets are available at www.GoDuke.com, Duke Ticket Office (919-681-2583) and at the N.C. State Ticket Office (919-865-1510).  All-session reserved tickets cost $48 and include a total of six games, four games on March 18, and two on March 20.
 
Duke Coach Gail Goestenkors

On her first impressions of the bracket:
“I wasn’t surprised. We felt sure we’d be in Raleigh and Greensboro. I thought Vanderbilt might be a two seed and I thought might be a three seed, but I wasn’t sure. It’s a great bracket when you consider that you have the Big East tournament champion and the SEC tournament champion and teams that are playing really well right now. We thought we’d probably be playing Holy Cross first so I’m not really that surprised.”

On Nebraska and Temple:
“I saw Temple play earlier in the year when I was scouting because they played Virginia, N.C. State and someone else in the ACC, so I’ve seen them on tape earlier when I was scouting for the ACC. Nebraska, I have not seen.”

On the advantage of being in Raleigh and Greensboro:
“I think it’s a huge advantage. When you’re in the tournament you want to be as comfortable as possible because there’s so much excitement and pressure. The more comfortable your players can be, the better. Staying close to home, getting to sleep in their own beds for a good part of it and not having to travel and having played in those arenas before – Lindsey and Ali two years ago in the RBC Center – anytime there is a level of comfort, it’s a level of comfort for me.”

On the team’s readiness:
“We’ve had three days off so today we were getting the kinks out. There were a lot of kinks.”

On the excitement of the tournament:
“We’re excited. It’s the best time of the year.”

Sophomore Guard Abby Waner

On the advantage of being in Raleigh and Greensboro:
“It’s a huge advantage for us. We’ll get a draw from fans in North Carolina that we wouldn’t be able to get in another state. We’re really looking forward to playing here; we kind of see it as our home advantage.”

On the excitement of the tournament:
“We have had so much time off so we’re just ready to get after it. We had practice today for one of the first times with our practice guys back and I think we had like, four people go down. We were really getting after it today and we’re ready to take that out on another team.”

On the practices since the loss in the ACC Tournament:
“We’re inspired. Not that we weren’t before, but we don’t want that to happen again; we can’t afford to let that happen again. We know the kind of team we are and we know that we didn’t display it against N.C. State. Granted, they played an amazing game themselves, but we’re not going to let that happen again and it’s starting with practices now.”