April 2, 2001

The UConn women's basketball team, smiles firmly in place, walked a gauntlet of television cameras outside the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion Wednesday morning and climbed on a bus bound for Bradley Airport and the Savvis Center in St Louis, Mo. There, they would compete in their fifth Final Four in 10 years, hoping to score their second consecutive national championship.

The Advance went to press Thursday night, about 24 hours before the Huskies opened their title defense against Notre Dame, a team with which they split two games during the season. A win would advance them to the championship game against either Purdue or Southwest Missouri.

Regardless of the outcome, the team has once again been an enormous source of pride for its huge Connecticut fan club, finishing the regular season with a 28-2 record, then dusting Long Island University, Colorado State University, North Carolina State and Lousiana Tech in the NCAA Tournament, leading to Friday's game against the Irish.

The UConn women, who have been invited to the NCAA Tournament for 13 consecutive years, were hoping to become only the third school in the history of the game to win back-to-back national crowns - Tennessee and the University of Southern California are the others.

Richard Veilleux