INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. --- Randolph-Macon College will not be the only team representing the ODAC in the upcoming NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament as Emory & Henry College earned an at-large bid into the field of 64 in Monday's selection show on www.ncaa.com.
The women's 64-team bracket is built very much like the previously announced men's field with 43 women's programs earning automatic bids (Pool A) after winning their respective conference championships. There was one spot reserved for a Pool B entrant as true independent squad or that which plays in a league without an automatic qualifier. The remaining 20 teams (Pool C) were picked via at-large selection by the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship Committee.
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Randolph-Macon (22-5) has the added bonus of hosting thru the first and second rounds competition. The Yellow Jackets welcome the University of Valley Forge (15-8), Christopher Newport University (23-4), and Haverford College (21-6) to Ashland. UVF won the American Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) championship to earn an automatic bid, but CNU needed an at-large selection after falling to Marymount University (Va.) in the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) title game. Haverford also got in with an at-large bid after falling to Gettysburg College in the Centennial Conference final.
The 1,400-seat Crenshaw Gymnasium will be the venue for a pair of first round games on Friday, March 2, as R-MC takes on Valley Forge and CNU squares off with Haverford. The two winners will meet on Saturay, March 3, for a spot in the sectionals the following weekend. Game times and rotation of Friday's games have not yet been determined.
Emory & Henry (22-6) heads north to Grantham, Pa., for pod-play at Messiah College (25-2). The Wasps and Falcons will be joined by Oberlin College (Ohio)(21-7) and Roger Williams University (R.I.)(23-5). Like E&H, Roger Williams needed an at-large selection to join the field after falling in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) championship to the University of New England. Messiah and Oberlin both claimed their conference titles. The Falcons upended Albright College for the MAC Commonwealth crown, while the Yeoman defeated Wittenberg University for the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) trophy.
Nearly 2,000 fans can fit inside Messiah's Hitchcock Arena to watch action on Jordan Court on Friday and Saturday. Emory & Henry will meet Roger Williams in one first round matchup, while Messiah and Oberlin go head-to-head in the other. The two winners play on Saturday for a chance to move on to the round of 16.
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For more information, visit the websites of any of the competing teams, or go to the ODAC's home on the Internet at www.odaconline.com. Don't forget to become a fan of the ODAC on Facebook and follow @odacathletics on Twitter and Instagram.