NAIA Women's Basketball Opening Round tips off with 3 RSC teams
NAIA Women's Basketball Opening Round tips off with 3 RSC teams
The 2021-22 NAIA Women's Basketball National Championship Opening Round tips off Friday, March 11 with three teams from the River States Conference. No. 20 University of Rio Grande (Ohio), Midway (Ky.) University and Indiana University East are in the 64-team bracket.
There are 16 opening round sites around the country with four teams at each location this weekend. Friday's winners will move on to the next round on Saturday, March 12. The 16 opening round bracket winners will meet for the NAIA Women's Basketball National Championship final site taking place March 17-22 in Sioux City, Iowa.
No. 20-ranked Rio Grande (31-2) is a No. 7 seed in Indianapolis. The RSC champion RedStorm face (RV) Columbia (Mo.), the No. 10 seed, on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. ET. The winner will get whoever advances between No. 2 Marian (Ind.) and No. 15 Olivet Nazarene (Ill.).
Midway (25-7), the RSC runner-up, is a No. 11 seed in Marion, Ind. The Eagles take on No. 6 seed Northwestern (Iowa) on Friday at 12 p.m. The Raiders are receiving votes in the NAIA Top 25. The winner will get the winner of No. 3 Indiana Wesleyan and No. 14 IU South Bend on Saturday.
IU East (25-7) is the No. 12 seed in Park City, Kan., and it faces No. 21-ranked Dordt (Iowa) on Friday at 3 p.m. ET. Dordt is the No. 5 seed. The IU East-Dordt winner will face the winner of No. 4 Sterling (Kan.) versus No. 13 Eastern Oregon on Saturday.
The RSC has continued its trend of getting three teams in the NAIA National Championship. The conference's two automatic bids went to regular season and postseason champion Rio Grande and to the other division champion Midway. IU East received an at-large bid as another RSC team with 25 or more wins.
For more information on the NAIA Women's Basketball National Championship, click here.