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Women's NCAA tournament draws thousands to Climate Pledge Arena

This year, half the tournament will be played in Seattle – a chance for new generations to see the future of the sport up close and personal.

SEATTLE — The road to the NCAA women's basketball championship goes right through Seattle.    

"I'm personally really excited because I've never been here before and I really like basketball," one young fan said.

Women's basketball proved once again on Friday that it can draw a great crowd.

"I've just had goosebumps through all of this. Because it wasn't as big a deal when I was growing up, 50 years ago," said University of Iowa fan and Moses Lake resident Mary Laughlin.

On Friday at Climate Pledge Arena, Iowa beat Colorado 87-77 and Louisville beat Ole Miss 72-62.

Many fans got the chance to see stand-out players like Caitlin Clark who is arguably one of the best women's basketball players in the nation. They also got to see the return of hometown favorites Hailey Van Lith of Cashmere and Quay Miller of Renton.

"It's just been incredible to see women's sports just get more and more popular over time with the sponsorships, the NIL, the outspokenness of a lot of the advocates of the different teams," said Jess Molberg.

This year, half the tournament will be played in Seattle – a chance for new generations to see the future of the sport up close and personal.

Players and fans that say they're here to stay.

"There's always been support, it just needed to be met with resources and I think people needed to catch on that because women's leagues have always been on the forefront of so much," said Merylin Castelin.

Here is the schedule for the rest of the March Madness games that will be held in Seattle:

Saturday

  • No. 2 UConn vs. No. 3 Ohio State at 1 p.m.
  • No. 1 Virginia Tech vs. No. 4 Tennessee at 3:30 p.m.

Sunday

  • No. 3 LSU vs. No. 9 Miami (Fla.) at 4 p.m.
  • No. 2 Iowa vs. No. 5 Louisville at 6 p.m.

Monday

  • TBD
  • TBD

We will know which women's team is advancing to the final four by the end of the month – the championship game will be held in Dallas on April 2.

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