WORCESTER, Mass. - The Holy Cross women's basketball team is in the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year. The Crusaders are facing Tennessee-Martin on Thursday night at 9 p.m. in Iowa City, Iowa, in the First Four round.

The Holy Cross team left Worcester on Tuesday morning on a charter flight, and before they left campus for the airport, the Crusaders talked about how excited they were to be in the tournament.

"Yeah, the whole team's so excited, we're all buzzing," said guard Bronagh Power-Cassidy. "I think this is someting you always dream of, and even having done it last year, it's just a feeling that never gets old. You just want to keep going back."

"This experience it was so amazing last year, and we have 11 of the 12 that was the team last year back," guard Kaitlyn Flanagan said. "So we're all very excited because we know what it means, but we also have some freshmen, so this will be a new experience for them."

If the Crusaders get past UT-Martin, they'll claim the No. 16 seed in the Albany 2 region — but they'll then face Caitlin Clark, NCAA Division I's all-time leading scorer, and top seed Iowa on Saturday in the round of 64.