The Hawkeyes knew it was coming, but they still jumped in celebration at Carver-Hawkeye Arena as Iowa women’s basketball was announced as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.

“We thought we were going to be probably a three seed and hoping for a two,” head coach Lisa Bluder said following the selection show on Sunday. “So, we got the two and we are thrilled with that.”

The Hawkeyes will host the first two rounds of the tournament in Iowa City with three teams traveling to Carver this weekend. Iowa will take on 15th-seeded Illinois State on Friday.

Illinois State won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament to clinch an automatic berth to the national tournament. The Redbirds are 19-13 overall in the 2021-22 season. 

“It’s really exciting,” redshirt junior Kate Martin said of playing in Iowa City. “I think, being able to play on our home court, which we want to defend, and we play well on our home court. We’ve gotten a lot of reps on those hoops down there. So, that’s the hope for us and we’re really excited to be able to celebrate with Hawkeye nation.”

For the first time in NCAA history, the women’s basketball tournament features 68 teams, same as the men’s basketball tournament. The top 16 overall seeds in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament host the first two rounds on campus sites. Iowa is the fifth overall seed.

Seventh-seeded Colorado and 10th-seeded Creighton will also make the trip to Iowa City for the first two rounds of the tournament. 

The winner of Iowa-Illinois State and Colorado-Creighton will face off at Carver on Sunday.

The last time the Hawkeyes hosted the first two rounds of the tournament was in the 2018-19 season. Iowa was a No. 2 seed and made it to the Elite Eight in the 2019 NCAA Tournament before falling to Baylor. Iowa was also seeded in the Greensboro region in its 2019 Elite Eight run.

Iowa’s seniors — Monika Czinano, Kate Martin, Logan Cook, and Tomi Taiwo — are the only remaining Hawkeyes on the 2019 Elite Eight team.

Last season, the Hawkeyes were sequestered in their hotels in San Antonio because of COVID-19 concerns. Now, Czinano is excited to do “normal” NCAA Tournament activities.

“Having people on our team, even like juniors, who have never experienced the normal NCAA Tournament, they’ve never experienced being, like, not locked in a hotel,” Czinano said. “To be able to see this, see the sights and everything, it’s just gonna be so much fun and I really think we love our region.”

Iowa State will also host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament in Ames this weekend. The Hawkeyes and Cyclones are both seeded in the Greensboro region, setting up a potential Sweet 16 Iowa State-Iowa matchup.

“They have tough games, as do we here,” sophomore point guard Caitlin Clark said. “I think just taking it game-by-game is the biggest one, and you’ve got to win six games if you want to win it all. That’s a lot of games.”

Iowa will enter the tournament with a 23-7 overall record. Six Big Ten teams made the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Iowa won both the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles for the first time in program history in 2021-22. The Hawkeyes clinched an automatic berth after winning the 2022 Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis on March 6. 

“We’re not done,” Clark said. “Our goal is to get to the Final Four. That’s where we want to be and we truly believe we can be there and win at all.”