KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially announced the 32 qualifiers for the 28th annual NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championship. The event will be held March 6-12 at the Tyson Event Center.
This year’s field consists of 23 automatic berths and 9 at-large spots. Automatic qualification is given to conference regular-season champions, regular-season runners-up, tournament champions or tournament runners-up depending on the league. At-large teams were determined using the final regular-season Coaches’ Top 25 Poll.
Concordia (Neb.) is the No. 1 overall seed entering the tournament with a 30-3 record overall and record of 19-3 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. The defending national champions, Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) also return to Sioux City as the No. 3 overall seed. The Tigers have an overall season record of 28-5 and a tournament record 16-4. The Great Plains Athletic Conference is home to three of the top four seeded teams (Concordia, Northwestern, and Dakota Wesleyan).
Northwestern and Dordt both earned At-Large bids to the dance.
The Red Raiders first round opponent, Olivet Nazarene, sports a 21-11 overall record and received votes in the final poll. They square of on Thursday, March 7th at 3:30 pm. ONU qualified by winning the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament. They are one of three teams from the CCAC in the 32-team field; St.Francis (Ill.) and Cardinal Stritch
Dordt will face Indiana Northwest on Wednesday night, March 6 at 7:00 pm at the Tyson Event Center in Sioux City, Iowa. The Defenders are seeded fourth in the eight-team Liston Bracket quadrant and Indiana Northwest is fifth. The number one seed in the Liston Bracket is Southeastern (Florida).
