I agree with @GloriaVaughn , your daughter needs to communicate better. As someone who is concerned with how your daughter was going to deal with the roommate, I think that you have enabled your daughter in this lack of communication.
When your D texted her roommate, to let her know that she was there and asking about which side of the room she wanted, she could have easily texted that she brought some of her housewares with her and would begin placing them in one of the cabinet.
I understand that you waited for roommate to arrive and then went to lunch. Did your D text roommate to let her know that she were stepping out, would be returning shortly and is looking forward to meeting her and discussing any additional things they need for the room?
It sounds like when the 2 of you got back from lunch and saw the apartment, that your D still made no effort to reach out to her roommate when she got back? This could have been a simple hey I am back at the apartment and I would really like to meet up with you before I go home for the weekend.
With all of your concerns and worries (that you are passing on to your D), I don’t understand why you drove home your D home for the weekend without daughter still not having an opportunity to meet her roommate.
Right now, it seems like it is your D who is not used to living in a dorm situation, it seems that she is not used to communicating in new social situations without interventions from you.
I think that there were a lot of disconnects and miscommunications that could have been avoided. Since you are the one with all of the concerns, it would have been worth the inconvenience to get home a little later and allow these 2 young women to have a face to face conversation to work out their living arrangements.