STANDISH, ME – The NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Committee on Monday announced the field of 64 teams for the 2014 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship. Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Champion Saint Joseph's College (23-5, 10-1 GNAC) is set to face #6 Tufts University in the first round at Cousens Gymnasium on the Jumbos' campus in Medford, Massachusetts on Friday. Tip-off time will be announced on Tuesday.
University of New England plays New York University (NYU) in the other first round contest on Friday and will face the winner of the Monks – Jumbos matchup in second-round action on Saturday.
Forty-three conferences have been awarded automatic qualification for the 2014 championship. One team was selected from Pool B, which consists of independent institutions and institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification. The final 20 berths were reserved for Pool C, which are institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion and any remaining Pool B teams.
Sixteen first/second-round sites will be conducted Friday and Saturday. Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites March 14-15. Winners of the four sectional sites will advance to the national semifinals March 21-22. All games, except the finals, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The finals will be conducted at Quandt Fieldhouse on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in Stevens Point, Wis.
Saint Joseph's, the #2 seed in the GNAC Tournament, defeated #8 Norwich University, 63-47, in the conference championship at the Alfond Center on Saturday. The win clinched the program's first GNAC title in seven years as a member of the conference, as well as the team's first conference crown since winning the Maine Athletic Conference in one of the College's final years as an NAIA member in 2001.
The Saint Joseph's women's basketball program made eight NAIA National Tournament appearances over 25 years before assuming NCAA DIII Independent status during the 2002-03 academic year. The Monks found a home in the GNAC in the fall of 2007 and, as an institution, has claimed 14 league titles overall since joining the conference, which features 12 institutions from six different states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The Monks carry an eight-game winning streak into the first round of the NCAA Tournament and have won 10 of the last 11 contests since falling to University of New England, 60-52, on January 27th.
Tufts University (26-1, 10-0 NESCAC), collected the program's first-ever New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) title with a 62-46 victory over Amherst College in the league championship on Saturday.
The Jumbos have advanced to the NCAA Sectional round in each of the last two seasons after winning first and second round games at home. Overall, the national tournament berth is the sixth in team history.
Game times at Cousens have not yet been announced. Ticket prices per game for the weekend are as follows:
Adults: $6
Students: $4
Seniors: $3
Tufts Students Free with ID
Tufts Athletics will offer live video and stats coverage of all three games. The link to live video will be provided later this week. Live statistics will be available at:
http://livestats.prestosports.com/tufts.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
