The Terps have appeared in the national tournament in 14 straight seasons.
Maryland women’s basketball (23-7) will be a No. 4 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament and face No. 13-seed Norfolk State (30-4) in the Round of 64 Birmingham regional.
Maryland and Norfolk State will face off on Saturday from College Park. Norfolk State won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament along with the regular season title, going 14-0 in conference play.
The Terps will host the first and second rounds at Xfinity Center and would face the winner of No. 5-seed Alabama and No. 12-seed Green Bay in the round of 32 if they advance past Norfolk State.
“Thrilled to be hosting. I think our body of work has definitely shown throughout this season,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “Really happy for our seniors to be able to have, hopefully, two games here.”
Maryland’s 2024-25 season has been nothing short of a roller coaster, but the Terps have remained solid throughout. They started the season scorching hot, winning their first 13 games of the season. That winning streak came to a screeching halt, as USC came to College Park and took down Maryland in a tight affair. But that was the last time the Terps would be at full strength.
In the next game against Wisconsin, the Terps won with some players sidelined with minor injuries. The next time out, Maryland suffered its biggest blow against Minnesota, as Bri McDaniel tore her ACL, ending her season.
McDaniel’s injury proved to be detrimental, as the Terps lost their next three games to elite programs in Texas, Ohio State and UCLA. During that stretch, Shyanne Sellers suffered a knee injury, which has stuck with her throughout the season.
Maryland fell twice more, once on senior day to Illinois on a failed last-second shot and then on its home floor to Nebraska. However, Maryland finished its regular season winning six of its last seven games and entered the Big Ten Tournament with high spirits. But the Terps were embarrassed by Michigan, 98-71, in the quarterfinals.
“I don’t think it’s a surprise. I think we’ve put in work all season, and I think we deserve [the seeding], even if we lose games, we learn from it,” Kaylene Smikle said. “I think we started off with the hard schedule, and we proved that we’re capable of doing the things that we did.”
Maryland has been led by Sellers and Smikle this season. Sellers averages 14.1 points per game, along with 4.2 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 28 outings. Smikle, a transfer from Rutgers, averages 18 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.
Other contributors, such as Sarah Te-Biasu, Saylor Poffenbarger and Christina Dalce, have been key cogs of Maryland’s effort this season. It earned a better regular season record this year than the 2023-24 campaign.
“Every team moving forward that we play in March Madness is going to think that they can compete with us,” Dalce said after the loss to Michigan. “So we need to have the mentality that nobody can compete with us, and that we have to elevate forward, and that we have to play as if this is our very last game ever playing basketball.”