The Tennessee Lady Vols will travel to Connecticut to face the UConn Huskies Sunday. Tennessee's win last season threw more fuel onto a fire that had been simmering between the two rivals for years, The Hartford Courant wrote Saturday — and UConn's loss contributed to the team's intense pursuit of their 12th NCAA championship, which they won at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season.
UConn has won nearly 40 games since losing to Tennessee last season, and is the only women's basketball team in the NCAA to be undefeated. When the Lady Vols won in Knoxville last year they were ranked No. 19 to UConn's No. 5. This year, Tennessee is ranked No. 15, and UConn is the best team in the nation.
The Courant spoke to Huskies star Azzi Fudd, who was able to recall the loss all too well. Fudd said that she hopes the Huskies are able to defeat the Lady Vols at home Sunday morning, and pointed out that, from her point of view, the team lost in large part because they didn't do enough to win.
"We were mad about our own performances and how didn’t show up for each other. … I can’t speak for other people, but it’s definitely still on my mind," she told the outlet. "I played like, really bad last year. But it’s a new group, a new team, so obviously it’s a big game and we’re all excited."
Geno Auriemma agrees the Tennessee game was pivotal
The team's head coach Geno Auriemma also told the outlet the match against Tennessee was a turning point last season. "Watching that game, there were just so many things that you wish you could take back — moments in the game, plays in the game that at the moment didn’t seem that big but ended up impacting the game pretty significantly," he said.
Auriemma added that despite that, the loss also offered the team the opportunity to review film and, essentially, be better.
The Tennessee-UConn lore runs deep; Auriemma and Pat Summitt, who coached the Lady Vols for decades before her retirement in April 2012, won a combined 12 NCAA Championships between 1995 and 2010, and their annual game has been a major one for women's college basketball fans for years.
In fact, at one point the rivalry was "so intense that Summitt cancelled the series in 2008 after accusing UConn of recruiting violations," and the two teams didn't play another again until former coach Kellie Harper resumed the match in 2020. Though Harper's teams lost each year they met the Huskies, new coach Kim Caldwell has so far proven to have a handle on what to expect.