The Final Four consisted of Virginia Cavaliers, Stanford Cardinal, Southwest Missouri State Lady Bears (now known as Missouri State), and Western Kentucky Lady Toppers, with Stanford defeating Western Kentucky 78–62 to win its second NCAA title.

The Hawkeyes were 25–3, winner of the Big Ten conference in their ninth year under Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer.

That matched up the Lady Bears against fifth-seeded UCLA, but Southwest Missouri State won easily, 83–57.

Their next game was against SEC regular season champion Ole Miss, one of a small number of teams who had played in every NCAA tournament since the first one in 1982.

Ole Miss was the number two seed in the region, but Southwest Missouri State again achieved an upset, winning the game 94–71.

[4] Southwest Missouri State's opponent in the semi-final game was Western Kentucky, who has also achieved some upsets.

After beating Alabama, the Lady Toppers faced Tennessee, the number one seed in the Mideast region, and the defending national champions.

Western Kentucky won the game 75–70, and went on to beat the number 2 seed in the region, Maryland, by the identical score.

The referee did not hear her call for the timeout, then heard the horn announcing the end of the game, so the refs and the teams headed off the court.

Van Derveer would later recount the story when preparing to train the USA National team, including Staley, for the 1996 Olympics.

The exceptions:[8] 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 26 to March 28 at these sites: Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four, held April 4 and April 5 in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (co-hosts: University of Southern California, University of California, Los Angeles)[9] The forty-eight teams came from twenty-nine states, plus Washington, D.C. California had the most teams with seven bids, the first time in tournament history a state had more than four bids.