The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced the teams and bracket for the NAIA Women’s Basketball National Championship Round. The 64-team bracket will begin with the first and second rounds at host sites across the country on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Dakota State University made its third consecutive trip to the NAIA Women’s Basketball National Tournament as an at-large invitation with an overall record of 25-6. The Trojans won their third straight North Star Athletic Association regular-season title, the first time since the 2006-08 seasons that DSU had won three straight conference titles.
DSU is placed in the Liston Quadrant as the No. 6 seed and will take on No. 11 seed Morningside (Iowa) (17-12) in the opening round on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Wichita, Kan.
The winner will move on to the opening round’s championship game Wednesday at 6 p.m. against the winner of No. 3 seed Eastern Oregon (29-2) and No. 14 Saint Mary (Kan.) (21-10).
The 2023 NAIA second round winners will meet up in Sioux City, Iowa, at the NAIA National Championship final site presented by Bomgaars and Sterling. The 42nd annual championship takes place at the Tyson Events Center from March 13-18.
This year’s first-round field included 38 automatic qualifiers and 26 at-large selections. Automatic berths were given to teams that either won their respective conference tournament title, regular-season championship, finished runner-up at the conference tournament or were the third regular-season finisher.
DSU will be making its ninth appearance in the NAIA Women’s Basketball National Tournament.
