STANDISH, Maine - The 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament field has been announced and Saint Joseph's College (27-1, 16-0 GNAC) is scheduled to play UMass.-Boston (25-3, 12-2 LEC) at LeFrak Gymnasium on the campus of Amherst College on Friday.
Game times and ticket information will be released on gomonks.com at some point on Tuesday following a conference call with NCAA officials. COMPLETE BRACKET
Led by 26th-year Head Coach Mike McDevitt '83, the Monks earned an automatic qualifier into the national tournament for the third-consecutive season - and fourth time in the last five years - after defeating Suffolk University, 73-59, in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship at the Harold Alfond Center on Saturday afternoon.
As the #2 seed in the Little East Conference (LEC) Tournament, UMass.-Boston faced off against top-seeded UMass.-Dartmouth in the LEC Championship on Saturday and upset the Corsairs on their home court with a 65-56 triumph. With the victory, the Beacons earned the program's first-ever LEC title and, subsequently, their first NCAA Tournament berth.
Friday's NCAA Tournament bout will be the first meeting between the Saint Joseph's and UMass.-Boston women's basketball programs since December 13th, 1988.
The other Friday night game in the four-team pod at Amherst will feature #1 Amherst College (27-0, 10-0 NESCAC) and Becker College (18-10, 11-5 NECC), with the winner facing the Saint Joseph's/UMass.-Boston winner at LeFrak Gymnasium on Saturday.
NCAA RELEASE:
INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Committee announced on Monday the field of 64 teams for the 2018 championship.
Forty-three conferences have been awarded automatic qualification for the 2018 championship. There is one berth reserved for Pool B and the final 20 berths are reserved for Pool C, which includes institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion and any Pool B teams.
Sixteen first/second-round sites will be conducted March 2-3. Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites March 9-10. Winners of the four sectional sites will advance to the national semifinals and final March 16-17. All games, except the semifinals/final, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The semifinals/final will be conducted at Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minnesota, hosted by Saint. Mary's University of Minnesota.
Interactive Bracket Printable Bracket
Forty-three conference champions will receive an automatic bid into the 64-team field, leaving 21 teams remaining. One team will be selected from a group of ten teams that are either independent or members of non-automatic qualifying conferences (Pool B). The other 20 teams come from Pool C, and make up the at-large bids.
The three week tournament kicks off March 2 and 3, when 16 four-team sites host the first and second round. Eight sectional semifinals continue on March 9, followed by four sectional finals on March 10. The national semifinals and final will be played the following weekend March 16 and 17 at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minn.
Reigning champion Amherst, who is 25-0 and hasn't lost since March 19, 2016, enters its season finale the No. 1 team in DIII. The Mammouths look to accomplish what Thomas More did in 2015 and 2016 with back-to-back, 33-0 national championship runs.
|
Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference |
Hilbert (21-6) |
|
American Southwest Conference |
East Texas Baptist (22-6) |
| Capital Athletic Conference | Marymount (Virginia) (24-3) |
| Centennial Conference | Gettysburg (25-2) |
| City University of New York Athletic Conference | Brooklyn (24-3) |
| College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin | Illinois Wesleyan (24-3) |
| Colonial States Athletic Conference | Cabrini (25-2) |
| Commonwealth Coast Conference | University of New England (23-5) |
| Empire 8 Conference | Stevens Institute of Technology (15-12) |
| Great Northeast Conference | Saint Joseph's (Maine) (27-1) |
| Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference | Rose-Hulman (24-3) |
| Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | Wartburg (27-0) |
| Landmark Conference | Scranton (26-1) |
| Liberty League | Skidmore (18-9) |
| Little East Conference | Massachusetts Boston (25-3) |
| Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference | Westfield State (19-7) |
| Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association | Hope (26-1) |
| Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth | Messiah (25-2) |
| Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom | Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham (21-6) |
| Midwest Conference | Cornell College (20-5) |
| Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | St. Thomas (Minnesota) (25-2) |
| New England Collegiate Conference | Becker (18-10) |
| New England Small College Athletic Conference | Amherst (27-0) |
| New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference | MIT (18-9) |
| New Jersey Athletic Conference | Montclair State (23-3) |
| North Atlantic Conference | Husson (19-9) |
| North Coast Athletic Conference | Oberlin (21-7) |
| North Eastern Athletic Conference | Keuka (21-5) |
| Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference | Wisconsin Lutheran (24-3) |
| Northwest Conference | George Fox (24-3) |
| Ohio Athletic Conference | Marietta (24-4) |
| Old Dominion Athletic Conference | Randolph-Macon (22-5) |
| Presidents' Athletic Conference | Thomas More (26-1) |
| Skyline Conference | Old Westbury (23-3) |
| Southern Athletic Association | Oglethorpe (21-7) |
| Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | Chapman (23-4) |
| Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference | Trinity (Texas) (23-3) |
| St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | Webster (20-6) |
| State University of New York Athletic Conference | SUNY Geneseo (25-2) |
| University Athletic Association | Chicago (23-2) |
| Upper Midwest Athletic Conference | Wisconsin-Superior (23-4) |
| USA South Athletic Conference | Piedmont (23-5) |
| Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | Wisconsin-Whitewater (24-3) |
Pool B Berth (1)
Valley Forge (15-8)
Pool C Berths (20)
Albright (20-7)
Bowdoin (24-2)
Christopher Newport (23-4)
DePauw (25-2)
Emory and Henry (22-6)
Gustavus Adolphus (22-6)
Haverford (21-6)
Ithaca (20-7)
Juniata (22-5)
Rochester (New York) (21-4)
Rochester Institute of Technology (21-6)
Roger Williams (23-5)
Saint Benedict (22-4)
The College of New Jersey (21-6)
Trine (24-3)
Tufts (23-4)
Texas-Dallas (23-4)
Washington U. in St. Louis (18-7)
Wheaton (Illinois) (22-5)
Whitman (22-4)
