NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Belmont University women's basketball program and ninth-year head coach
Bart Brooks announced a home-and-home series with the University of Tennessee on Friday afternoon. The Bruins will visit Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Thursday, Nov. 13 this fall before hosting the eight-time national champion Lady Volunteers at the Curb Event Center in 2026.
Tennessee has won the second-most national championships of any NCAA women's basketball program.
The date of Belmont's home game with the Lady Vols during the non-conference portion of the 2026-27 season will be announced next summer.
The two teams last met in the 2022 NCAA Tournament in Knoxville where the 12th-seeded Bruins came within a ball bounce of reaching the Sweet 16. Belmont led fourth-seeded and 18th-ranked Tennessee by two with under 30 seconds remaining in the second round of the NCAA Tournament after having multiple chances to go up by two possessions in the final two minutes. The Bruins had upset fifth-seeded Oregon 73-70 in double overtime in the first round inside Thompson-Boling Arena, their second consecutive first-round victory in the Big Dance.
Belmont's winning percentage of 73.1 over the last 10 seasons (226-83) is the highest of any Division I women's basketball team in the state of Tennessee.
The Bruins are 6-5 all-time versus the Lady Vols with their last win over Tennessee taking place on Jan. 28, 1977, in Nashville (60-59). The Lady Vols lead the series 2-0 since Belmont became an NCAA member. The Bruins are 2-5 against Tennessee in Knoxville, but 4-0 versus the Lady Vols in the Music City. Belmont also led a top-10 Tennessee squad in the fourth quarter in a late-December matchup at Thompson-Boling Arena in 2018, before ultimately falling 84-76.
Graduate guard Avery "Ace" Strickland is a Tennessee transfer and Knoxville native who played in 39 games for the Lady Vols over the last two seasons.
Second-year graduate assistant for basketball operations
Virginia Stuart is a 2024 Tennessee graduate and was a student manager for the Lady Vols for two seasons.
One of only nine programs in the nation to have won 20-plus games for 10-straight seasons, the Bruins went 26-13 last season and reached the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) championship game. Having claimed seven national postseason wins in the last five years, Belmont has earned a national postseason bid in 12 of the last 13 seasons.
The Bruins return eight letter winners for the 2025-26 season while welcoming seven newcomers, including five freshmen and a pair of transfers.
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