All tournament long, the talk has been about a UConn vs. Notre Dame National Championship Game. The Connecticut Huskies and Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the nation’s only undefeated teams, they’re former conference rivals, and (perhaps most importantly) many observers believe Notre Dame is the only team capable of taking down Breanna Stewart and UConn.
Women’s NCAA Tournament 2014 schedule and bracket: Traditional powerhouses collide in Nashville
Undefeated UConn and Notre Dame are the two No. 1 seeds in the Final Four, and they will be challenged by Stanford and Maryland respectively.
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The two are on opposite sides of the bracket by design, but both have reached the Final Four in Nashville and are just a win away from the long-awaited matchup.
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In the first game on Sunday evening, No. 1 seed Notre Dame faces the No. 4 seed Maryland Terrapins. The game will tip off at 6:30 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN. No. 1 seed UConn and the second-seeded Stanford Cardinal will then play around 8:30 p.m., also on ESPN.
That first semifinal game is a battle of conference foes. The Fighting Irish slipped by the Terrapins, 87-73, in College Park during the regular season, but when they meet on Sunday, things might be a bit tougher. Notre Dame lost captain Natalie Achonwa to a torn ACL in its Elite Eight win over Baylor earlier in the week. Achonwa started 33 games for the Fighting Irish this season, averaging 14.9 points.
Meanwhile, Stanford is the only team standing in UConn’s way of a second straight appearance in the title game. The Huskies beat the Cardinal by 19 when the two teams met in Storrs on Nov. 11. Amber Orrange led all scorers with 22 points, while Bria Hartley paced UConn with 20 in that game.
A complete look at the 2014 women's NCAA Tournament bracket can be found here:
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