Updated: 11:51 p.m.

The women's basketball team will face top-seeded and No. 1 nationally ranked UConn in the NCAA Tournament, the NCAA announced this evening. The game will be played in Bridgeport, Conn., this Sunday at 7 p.m. Cornell received a No. 16 seed in the tournament, having won the Ivy League's automatic NCAA bid with a win over Dartmouth this past Sunday. That game was the final contest in a playoff for the Ancient Eight's NCAA bid after Cornell, Dartmouth and Harvard all tied for the Ivy League championship, winning 11 league games apiece.

NEW YORK CITY — Cornell basketball had a historic weekend, with the men's squad earning a No. 14 seed in the NCAA tournament, and the women's team dominating a playoff game to earn its first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. It is the first time in Cornell history that both the men's and women's basketball teams will play in the NCAA Tournament in the same season, and only the third time any Cornell basketball team has ever earned a bid to the tournament.

The men will face No. 3-seeded Stanford, in Anaheim, on Thursday. It is Cornell's first bid in 20 years and Stanford's 16th overall bid.

Update: 10:45 p.m.

The Cornell men's basketball team was selected as the No. 14 seed in the NCAA tournament and will face No. 3-seeded Stanford in Anaheim on Thursday, the NCAA revealed this evening. It is the Cornell's first bid to the tournament in 20 years and the Red’s third-ever appearance.

Cornell locked up its NCAA bid after winning the outright Ivy League title, the school’s first since 1988. That year, the team received the No. 16 seed and lost to No. 1-seeded Arizona in the first round, 90-50. Cornell’s first appearance was in 1954 after it won the EIBL title.

No. 11/11 Stanford (26-7, 13-5 Pac-10) is making its 16th overall appearance. The Cardinals finished second in the Pac-10 Tournament, with UCLA taking the championship game, 67-64.

Update: Women face No. 1 UConn in first round

NEW YORK CITY — The women's basketball team defeated Dartmouth, 64-47, to secure its first-ever spot in the NCAA tournament this afternoon at Columbia's Levien Gym. The Red was locked in a three-way tie with the Green and the Crimson for the Ivy League championship, so the teams were seeded into a playoff to determine who would receive the automatic NCAA and NIT tournament bids. Cornell was randomly selected to have a first-round bye, while Dartmouth defeated Harvard on Friday to earn its matchup with Cornell.

In 2000, as Dartmouth was finishing its run at a thirteenth Ivy League title, the state quarters for New Hampshire and Massachusetts were released. The next year, as Harvard was just beginning on its path to its seventh Ivy League crown, the state quarter for New York was released. On Wednesday, those three quarters were placed into a bag to represent the states of the three schools that shared the women’s basketball Ivy League championship.

During the 2005-06 season, forward Shannan Scarselletta — also a Sun columnist — stepped out on a limb and predicted an Ivy League title for the women’s basketball team sometime in the near future. Two years and a handful of weeks later, Scarselletta, along with the rest of the team, stood on a ladder in Newman Arena and cut down the net to celebrate their share of the title.

“It’s what you dream of. It’s what the goal has been since I got here,” said head coach Dayna Smith.

From the second I started writing for the Sun, I knew I wanted to cover the men’s basketball team. When I became an Assistant Sports Editor, I could have chosen to do any sport. Generally, covering hockey or wrestling (which are typically the stronger, more nationally-known winter programs) would be a sports writer’s top choice at the Sun. But not for me. After sitting all by my lonesome sometimes in Newman Arena during freshman year, to living next to and becoming good friends with some of the players, the choice to cover the men’s basketball team was almost natural.