Coach Wes Moore’s effort to catapult NC State into the elite of women’s college basketball took another step forward Monday with the announcement that the Wolfpack has signed on to play a home-and-home series against national powerhouse UConn.
The first meeting will take place in Storrs, Conn., during the 2022-23 season with the return game coming the following season at Reynolds Coliseum.
The Wolfpack and the 11-time national champion Huskies have met eight times dating back to 1991, with UConn winning six. The most recent meeting came in 2007 in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.
State’s last win in the series came in the NCAA East Region finals, a 60-52 victory that sent Kay Yow’s team to the first and only Final Four in school history.
Moore, the Wolfpack’s current coach, has worked hard over the past few years to raise his program’s national stature by scheduling some of the top nonconferences opponents in the country.
Last year’s team traveled to South Carolina and beat the Gamecocks, which was ranked No. 1 at the time, 54-46 on its way to a top NCAA Tournament seed. The teams are scheduled to play a rematch in Raleigh in 2021-22.
The Wolfpack will return all five starters, including All-American center Elissa Cunane, from a team that won two straight ACC Tournament championships and advanced to the Sweet 16 in each of the past two NCAA Tournaments.
