Monday, February 27, 2006

MORAVIAN COLLEGE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM AWARDED AT-LARGE BERTH TO 2005-06 NCAA DIVISION III NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT; GREYHOUNDS HEADED TO VIRGINIA FOR FIRST & SECOND ROUNDS

INDIANAPOLIS, IN --- The Moravian College women’s basketball team has been awarded one of the 21 Pool C/at-large berths into the 2005-06 NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament Field of 63 announced late Sunday evening and the bracket was announced at 8:45 Monday morning.

The Greyhounds will be headed to Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia for the first and second rounds of the tournament. Moravian will play Greensboro (NC) College (22-6) in the first round at a time to be determined. Click here for a printable bracket. The other first round game features the host Yellow Jackets versus Hood College.

Moravian has a 21-6 record on the year and will be making its sixth appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament and first since 1992-93. The Greyhounds are 7-6 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, playing for the national championship in 1991-92 and reaching the Sweet 16 in 1990-91 and 1992-93. Moravian head coach Mary Beth Spirk has led the program to all but its first NCAA Tournament appearance and is 7-4 in NCAA action.

Here are the 63 teams in the field:

NCAA Tournament selections

Pool A/atuomatic qualifiers
Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Medaille
American Southwest Conference McMurry
Atlantic Women’s Colleges Conference Hood
Capital Athletic Conference Marymount (Virginia)
Centennial Conference Muhlenberg
City University of New York Athletic Conference Bernard Baruch
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Wheaton (Illinois)
Commonwealth Conference Messiah
Commonwealth Coast Conference Colby-Sawyer
Empire 8 St. John Fisher
Freedom Conference Scranton
Great Northeast Athletic Conference Norwich
Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Manchester
Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Simpson
Lake Michigan Conference Lakeland
Liberty League William Smith
Little East Conference Southern Maine
Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference Salem State
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Hope
Midwest Conference Carroll
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Concordia-Moorhead
New England Small College Athletic Conference Bowdoin
New England Women’s and Men’s Athletics Conference Springfield
New Jersey Athletic Conference The College of New Jersey
North Atlantic Conference Maine-Farmington
North Coast Athletic Conference Denison
Northwest Conference Pacific Lutheran
Ohio Athletic Conference Capital
Old Dominion Athletic Conference Randolph-Macon
Pennsylvania Athletic Conference Gwynedd-Mercy
Skyline Conference Mount St. Mary (N.Y.)
St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Maryville (Missouri)
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Cal Lutheran
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference DePauw
State University of New York Athletic Conference Oswego State
University Athletic Association Washington U. in St. Louis
USA South Athletic Conference Greensboro
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Wisconsin-Stout

Pool B Berths (4):
Chapman
Maryville (Tennessee)
Rockford
Washington and Jefferson

Pool C Berths (21):
Baldwin-Wallace
Bates
Brandeis
Bridgewater (Virginia)
Calvin
Cortland State
Franklin
Hardin-Simmons
Howard Payne
Maine Maritime
Mary Washington
Moravian
New York University
Oglethorpe
Puget Sound
Richard Stockton
Rochester
St. Benedict
Trinity
Wesleyan (Connecticut)
Williams