After qualifying for the NCAA tournament for the first time, Fairleigh Dickinson University’s women’s basketball team is returning to the big stage once again. On Saturday, Mar. 21 at 4 p.m., 15-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson will be taking on 2-seed Iowa in the first round of the tournament.
Last year, Fairleigh Dickinson’s women basketball team made its first appearance in the NCAA tournament, also appearing as the 15-seed in a matchup against 2-seed TCU. Fairleigh Dickinson was unable to pull off the upset, falling to TCU by a score of 73-51. However, TCU was one of the most talented teams in the bracket, making it all the way to the elite 8 in last year’s tournament.
Fairleigh Dickinson earned an automatic qualification into the tournament after winning the Northeast Conference (NEC) tournament, in which they were ranked as the 1-seed. In the championship game, the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights took down the Long Island University Sharks with ease, winning by a score of 79-57. The team’s victory was a full team effort, with six Fairleigh Dickinson players recording double digit points.
The team finished the regular season with a perfect record in conference games, going 18-0 in the NEC. The last time that Fairleigh Dickinson fell to an NEC opponent was on Mar. 14, 2024 against Le Moyne College. After holding a losing record for the 2023-2024 season, Fairleigh Dickinson has quickly flipped the script and transformed into a rising mid-major powerhouse.
Fairleigh Dickinson finished at the top of the NEC, with a 30-4 record on the season. The team is currently riding a 22-game win streak, with the team’s last loss coming on Dec. 29 against Binghamton University. The Knights will look to ride that momentum heading into their matchup against one of the NCAA’s toughest opponents in the Iowa Hawkeyes.
If there’s one thing that Fairleigh Dickinson has proven, however, it is that they can play the role of the underdog perfectly. In 2023, Fairleigh Dickinson’s men’s basketball team famously took down 1-seed Purdue as a 16-seed, becoming just the second team to accomplish that feat in the tournament’s illustrious history. Fairleigh Dickinson once again will be the underdog against Iowa, which is currently 30-point favorites, however, the school isn’t new to pulling off a Cinderella story.
Last season was new territory for Fairleigh Dickinson women’s basketball, however, this year the team is more acclimated to the environment and looking to turn some heads. A 15-seed has never defeated a 2-seed in the women’s March Madness tournament, though Fairleigh Dickinson has defied the odds before.
Fairleigh Dickinson’s head coach, Stephanie Gaitley, is in her third season coaching the team, however, her legacy in the sport spans decades. Gaitley first began coaching in the NCAA in 1985 for the University of Richmond and coached four other teams before coming to Fairleigh Dickinson. Over her career, Gaitley has made the NCAA tournament 11 times, making it out of the first round three times, though if she is able to pull off that feat this year it would be her most iconic win yet. Gaitley and Fairleigh Dickinson will look to make history and put the Garden State on the map once again this Saturday, as the team takes on Iowa.