INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. --- Just one ODAC squad will compete in the Division III Field Hockey Championship field for the second straight year with conference champion Washington and Lee University 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 third consecutive 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.

Washington and Lee (14-4), ranked 19th in the latest NFHCA coaches poll, was the highest ODAC ranked squad in the NPI in 26th position. The University of Lynchburg (14-6) would have been the first ODAC team up for at-large selection with the 30th-ranked NPI, but the Hornets were slotted 19th among non-AQ teams in the final listing.

The Generals, positioned in the lower-left quadrant of the bracket, will begin play on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. ET in a first round contest at York College (Pa.). The Spartans (16-4) won the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Commonwealth crown. They are ranked 14th by the NFHCA and rated 11th in the NPI.

The winner of the Generals-Spartans clash will travel to No. 3 Christopher Newport University for second and third round action on Saturday and Sunday, November 14-15.

The national semifinal and championship games will be hosted in Geneva, N.Y., at McCooey Field on the campus of William Smith College. The semifinals are scheduled for Friday, November 20 with the title game slated for Sunday, November 22.