Kansas City, Missouri — The nervous anticipation is over as the Northwestern College women’s basketball team learned the good news regarding their postseason fate as they were announced as one of the 48 qualifiers for the 2021 NAIA Women’s Basketball National Championship Opening Round, presented by Ballogy.
Northwestern received one of the 11 at-large bids and earned a No.3 seed in the Omaha Bracket A where they will face No.2 seed College of the Ozarks (Mo.) on Friday, March 12 at a time to be determined. The winner of Friday’s game will be paired against the top seed in the three-team pod, Clarke, the next day with a berth to the final site in Sioux City, Iowa on the line. The 40th annual championship takes place at the Tyson Events Center from March 18-23.
This year’s Opening Round field includes 37 automatic qualifiers and 11 at-large selections. Automatic berths were given to teams that either won their respective conference tournament title, regular-season championship, finished runner-up at the conference tournament or were selected by a conference selection committee. The at-large bids were determined by the Women’s Basketball National Selection Committee. This committee consists of one representative from each geographical area and six at-large members. The committee evaluated teams throughout the year on various criteria.
Northwestern will be making its 17th championship appearance and first in a consolidated / one division of the NAIA women’s basketball tournament. The Raiders have won five national titles, all since 2008, and hold a 51-11 overall record at the national tournament. This will be the seventh trip to the national tournament in the 10 years under head coach Chris Yaw, who guided his team to the national title in his first year (2011-12) and was an assistant for three of the four other titles (2008, 10,11).
The Raiders join Morningside and Concordia (both earned auto bids) from the Great Plains Athletic Conference in the field of 48; both the Mustangs (Wichita B) and the Bulldogs (Park City B) are No.1 seeds. Northwestern finished third in the GPAC regular season with a 16-6 record, 17-10 overall; after an 0-6 start to the year, they won 17 of their final 21 games and received votes in the final three coaches’ polls.
Northwestern’s first round opponent, College of the Ozarks, is no stranger to the national tournament setting and received an automatic bid into the championship by way of winning the AII postseason tournament. The Bobcats will be making their 26th appearance in the tournament; they have played Northwestern five times in previous tournaments, including twice in the championship game. College of the Ozarks went 8-1 and is receiving votes in the national poll.
2007 – Northwestern lost 88-82 (2nd round)
2008 – Northwestern won 82-75 (championship)
2012 – Northwestern won 75-62 (championship)
2014 – Northwestern lost 90-69 (Quarterfinals)
2019 – Northwestern won 71-70 (Quarterfinals)
2021 Qualifiers
Seed | Team | Qualification | Appearances | Last Qualified | Titles |
1 | Thomas More (Ky.) | Mid-South Regular-Season & Tournament Champion | 2 | 2020 | 0 |
2 | Westmont (Calif.) | Golden State Athletic Conference West Division Champion | 16 | 2020 | 1 |
3 | Campbellsville (Ky.) | Mid-South Conferene Tournament Runner-Up | 29 | 2020 | 0 |
4 | Wayland Baptist (Texas) | Sooner Athletic Conference Regular-Season & Tournament Champion | 28 | 2020 | 0 |
5 | Marian (Ind.) | Crossroads League Regular-Season Champion | 8 | 2020 | 2 |
6 | Carroll (Mont.) | Frontier Conference Tournament Champion | 12 | 2020 | 0 |
7 | Morningside (Iowa) | Great Plains Athletic Conference Regular-Season & Tournament Champion | 20 | 2020 | 4 |
8 | Southeastern (Fla.) | The Sun Regular-Season & Conference Tournament Champion | 7 | 2020 | 0 |
9 | Clarke (Iowa) | Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament Champion | 5 | 2020 | 0 |
10 | Sterling (Kan.) | Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Regular-Season & Tournament Champion | 19 | 2020 | 0 |
11 | Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) | At-Large | 16 | 2020 | 0 |
12 | Dakota State (S.D.) | North Star Athletic Association Conference Tournament Champion | 7 | 2012 | 0 |
13 | MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) | Heart of America Athletic Conference Regular-Season Champion | 14 | 2020 | 1 |
14 | Indiana Wesleyan | Crossroads LeagueTournament Champion | 18 | 2020 | 2 |
15 | St. Francis (Ill.) | Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Regular-Season Runner-Up | 7 | 2020 | 0 |
16 | Concordia (Neb.) | Great Plains Athletic Conference Tournament Runner-Up | 20 | 2020 | 1 |
17 | Indiana Tech | Wolverine Hoosier Athletic Conference Tournament Champion | 10 | 2020 | 0 |
18 | Vanguard (Calif.) | At-Large | 23 | 2020 | 1 |
19 | Loyola (La.) | Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament Champion | 13 | 2020 | 0 |
20 | Shawnee State (Ohio) | At-Large | 26 | 2020 | 1 |
21 | Cumberlands (Ky.) | At-Large | 15 | 2014 | 0 |
22 | Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) | Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament Champion | 23 | 2020 | 0 |
23 | Mid-America Christian (Okla.) | At-Large | 1 | 0 | 0 |
24 | Saint Xavier (Ill.) | Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Regular-Season Champion | 18 | 2020 | 0 |
25 | College of the Ozarks (Mo.) | Association of Independent Institutions Tournament Champion | 26 | 2020 | 0 |
26 | Lyon (Ark.) | American Midwest Conference Regular-Season & Tournament Champion | 10 | 2020 | 0 |
27 | Montana Western | At-Large | 13 | 2020 | 1 |
28 | Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) | Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Champion | 13 | 2020 | 0 |
29 | Grand View (Iowa) | At-Large | 8 | 2018 | 0 |
30 | Benedictine (Kan.) | At-Large | 11 | 2018 | 0 |
31 | LSU Shreveport (La.) | Red River Athletic Conference Tournament Champion | 10 | 2020 | 0 |
32 | Columbia (Mo.) | American Midwest Conference Tournament Runner-Up | 17 | 2020 | 0 |
33 | Providence (Mont.) | At-Large | 6 | 2020 | 0 |
34 | Northwestern (Iowa) | At-Large | 17 | 2019 | 5 |
35 | Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) | At-Large | 2 | 2011 | 0 |
36 | Bryan (Tenn.) | Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament Champion | 10 | 2020 | 0 |
37 | Rochester (Mich.) | Wolverine Hoosier Athletic Conference Regular-Season Champion | 1 | 0 | 0 |
38 | Xavier (La.) | Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Champion | 21 | 2019 | 0 |
39 | Langston (Okla.) | Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament Runner-Up | 14 | 2016 | 0 |
40 | William Jessup (Calif.) | Golden State Athletic Conference East Division Champion | 2 | 2019 | 0 |
41 | Benedictine Mesa (Ariz.) | California Pacific Conference Tournament Champion | 1 | 0 | 0 |
42 | Bethel (Kan.) | Kansas Collegiate Athletic Confreence Tournament No. 2 Seed | 1 | 0 | 0 |
43 | WVU Tech (W.Va.) | River States Athletic Confernce Tournament Champion | 4 | 2020 | 0 |
44 | Reinhardt (Ga.) | Appalachian Athletic Conference Selection | 5 | 2020 | 0 |
45 | Rio Grande (Ohio) | River States Athletic Conference Tournament Runner-Up | 9 | 2018 | 0 |
46 | Union (Ky.) | Appalachian Athletic Conference Selection | 7 | 2020 | 0 |
47 | Webber International (Fla.) | The Sun Regular-Season Runner-Up | 5 | 2013 | 0 |
48 | Crowley’s Ridge (Ark.) | Association of Independent Institutions Tournament Runner-Up | 1 | 0 | 0 |