The UConn and Vanderbilt women’s basketball teams have set up a home-and-home series for the 2027-28 and 2028-29 seasons.
The two teams will face off Nov. 14, 2027, in Connecticut. They’ll meet again Nov. 19, 2028, at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium.
This announcement comes at a time when UConn and Vanderbilt are the only two unbeaten Division I women’s teams. UConn (19-0) is ranked first and Vanderbilt (19-0) is fifth in the AP Top 25 poll, while the two are first and seventh, respectively, in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET.
Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph played for Huskies coach Geno Auriemma at UConn from 1996-2001 following her being named national high school player of the year. Ralph led UConn to the 2000 national title and was the most outstanding player of the Final Four that year. Recurring ACL injuries led Ralph to miss a professional career in the WNBA despite being drafted by the Utah Starzz.
Geno Auriemma, Chris Dailey and Shea Ralph coached UConn through a record stretch of college basketball at UConn. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
Instead, Ralph moved into coaching and became an assistant coach on Auriemma’s UConn staff from 2008-21 before Vanderbilt hired her as head coach. In her time as an assistant coach for the Huskies, they won the national championship in 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, and she was on the staff during the 111-game win streak, the longest-ever in Division I college basketball, men’s or women’s. In 2024, Ralph brought Vanderbilt back to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tourmanent for the first time since 2014 as a No. 12 seed, then returned again in 2025 as a No. 7.
UConn leads the all-time series 6-2. Their most recent meeting was a UConn 64-51 victory at Vanderbilt on Nov. 13, 2019.
