INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. --- Just one ODAC squad will compete in the Division III Field Hockey Championship field with conference champion University of Lynchburg carrying the league banner on the national stage as announced by the NCAA on the selection show on ncaa.com on Sunday evening.
The bracket size sits at 28 teams for a second straight season. A total of 18 squads earned automatic entries as champions of their conferences. The remaining 10 outfits earned their spot via National Power Index (NPI) rankings.
All teams in a given sport -- 163 in D-III field hockey -- feature a NPI rating. Those NPI ratings are ranked sequentially and form a transparent method of selecting teams at-large to Division III brackets, replacing the former process of the sport championship committees selecting teams at-large based on predetermined selection criteria. Once the 18 automatic qualifiers are known, the next 10 best NPI-rated teams formed the list of at-large selected programs to fill out the bracket.
Lynchburg (16-4), ranked 18th in Division III in the latest NFHCA coaches poll and 20th in the final NPI table, hits the road to location in Glassboro, N.J., the home of Rowan University. The Hornets and Profs (16-5) meet for the second time this season in the first round on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Rowan won the first outing in overtime, 4-3, in early October.
The winner in Glassboro joins two other first round advancing teams for second and third round pod play at nationally top-ranked Christopher Newport University on the weekend. The Captains (17-0) will square off with the Lynchburg-Rowan winner at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. The other second round game, slated for 2:00 p.m. ET, with feature either Salisbury University (17-2) or Denison University (12-6) against either Dickinson College (18-3) or St. Mary's College of Maryland (13-5). The third round contest at CNU is set for 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday.
The national semifinal and championship games will be hosted in Hartford, Conn., at Robin L. Sheppard Field on the campus of Trinity College. The semifinals are schedule for Friday, November 21 with the title game scheduled for Sunday, November 23.