[3] Auburn, coached by Joe Ciampi, had been to all but one of the NCAA tournaments, and reached the last two Final Fours, but finished in the Runner-up position in each year.

Louisiana Tech had not just played in every NCAA tournament, but had reached at least the Elite Eight every year, and had two national championships.

This time, led by Dawn Staley who would win the MVP for her performance in the East Regional, the Cavaliers took the Volunteers to overtime, and won 79–75.

Virginia next faced Stanford, who had only lost one game all season, and reached the final four by beating Arkansas 114–87 in the West Regional.

Auburn came into the tournament as the prior year's runner-up, but was a two seed in the bracket with Washington, the only team to beat Stanford during the regular season.

The Tech team, only two years removed from their last national championship, were a 1 seed and beat Texas to advance to the Final Four.

She brought the team to a tie at halftime, and helped lead a 9–2 run early in the second half to take over the game.

Azzi would win the tournament award for the most outstanding player, and her teammate Katy Steding set three point shooting records to help Stanford win their first national championship 88–81, while Auburn would finish as runner-up for the third consecutive year.

The exception:[7] The following table lists the region, host school, venue and the thirty-two first and second round locations: The regionals, named for the general location, were held from March 22 to March 24 at these sites: Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four, held March 30 and April 1 in Knoxville, Tennessee at the Thompson-Boling Arena (Host: University of Tennessee) The forty-eight teams came from thirty states.