NOVEMBER 18, 2024 | written by STEVE ULRICH

News and notes on the largest and best Division in the NCAA. #whyD3
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🌅 Good Morning. Let’s make it a great week, shall we?

Headlines
🏈 Football Championship Field Unveiled
🏐 Champions Crowned, AQs Determined
🏑 Salisbury Joins NESCAC Trio In Final Four
🏃 Field Is Announced For National Meet
⚽️  Sweet 16 Set
🌟 Plays of the Weekend

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TOP STORY
1. Football Championship Field Unveiled

The 40-team bracket for the 2024 DIII Football Championship was announced on Sunday. 24 teams received first-round byes, while 16 teams are involved in first-round games on Saturday: Northwestern at UW-La Crosse; Bethel at Coe; Alfred State at Endicott; Pomona-Pitzer at Whitworth; Mary Hardin-Baylor at Trinity TX; Maryville at Berry; Ursinus at King’s; Mount St. Joseph at John Carroll.

» Interactive Bracket

» Bowl Games. Centennial-MAC Bowl Series (Widener at Muhlenberg; Franklin & Marshall at Delaware Valley; Dickinson at FDU-Florham); Isthmus Bowl (Wheaton IL vs. UW-Stout); Extra Points Bowl (Marietta vs. Westminster PA); Fusion Bowl (Husson at SUNY Maritime); Forever Lawn Bowl (Hanover vs. Wabash). Cousins Subs Lakefront Bowl (Monmouth vs. St. Norbert). ECAC Bowl Selection: 1 p.m. ET

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VOLLEYBALL
2. Champions Crowned, AQs Determined

The 64-team bracket for the 2024 Division III women’s volleyball championship will be unveiled this afternoon at 1 p.m. ET. Forty-three teams punched their ticket to the tournament field by earning their conference’s AQ, while another 21 will receive at-large invitations to the dance.

Listed below are the conference automatic qualifiers in women’s volleyball and football.

» Watch the bracket reveal here

FIELD HOCKEY
3. Salisbury Joins NESCAC Trio In Final Four

The top four teams in the final NCAA Power Index have advanced to this weekend’s national semifinals of the 2024 Division III field hockey championship.

Top-ranked Tufts took down conference foe Bates, 2-1, to earn a spot opposite No. 4 Williams who knocked off Messiah, 2-1. The Jumbos and the Ephs will square off in one semifinal on Friday at noon in the rubber match of their 2024 series. Williams blanked Tufts, 1-0, in early September, while the Jumbos avenged the loss with a 3-2 OT win in the NESCAC semifinals.

The other semi will pit No. 2 Salisbury and No. 3 Middlebury at 3 p.m.. The Sea Gulls upended Christopher Newport, 2-1, while the Panthers handed Johns Hopkins a 3-1 defeat.

» Bracket, Scores and Schedule

CROSS COUNTRY
4. Field Is Announced For National Meet

The NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Committee has announced the participants for the 2024 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships.

Thirty-two teams were selected to participate in each championship. The top seven-person team automatically qualified from each of the 10 regions. Twenty-two additional teams were selected at-large.

Seventy individuals, the first seven student-athletes from each region who are not a part of a qualifying team, were selected to participate in each championship.

» What’s Next. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is hosting the championships Nov. 23 at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Regional Championship Results

• Region I (East) | Region II (Mideast) | Region III (Niagara)

• Region IV (Mid-Atlantic) | Region V (Metro) | Region VI (Great Lakes)

• Region VII (South) | Region VIII (North) | Region IX (Midwest)

• Region X (West)

» Team and Individual Qualifiers

SOCCER
5. Sweet 16 Set

The Sweet 16 is set in the 2024 NCAA Division III men’s and women’s soccer championship tournaments.

On the men’s side, top-ranked Middlebury advanced with wins over Hunter and Vassar. But No. 2 Tufts was ousted in PKs by Buffalo State in the second round, while No. 9 Johns Hopkins was also bounced in penalties by Washington and Lee. Defending champion St. Olaf was also knocked out of the tourney in PKs by UW-Superior.

» Complete Men’s Bracket

In the women’s bracket, No. 1 Washington U. easily advanced to the round of 16 with wins against DePauw and Simpson. No. 5 TCNJ was bounced in the second round by Johns Hopkins, while No. 6 Carnegie Mellon was eliminated in penalties by Illinois Tech. No. 7 Pomona-Pitzer was ousted in PKs by Trinity TX and Chicago took out No. 10 Calvin.

» Complete Women’s Bracket

NEWS
6. Lightning Round ⚡️ 

📰 News. Marymount Board of Trustees member Terry Thompson donated $1 million to the University’s women’s athletics and honors program scholarships. Half of Thompson’s gift will drive growth in Women’s Athletics, addressing various program needs and providing leadership development opportunities for female student-athletes across all varsity teams.

📜 Enrollment. “Fall 2024 enrollment at the State University of New York system increased 2.3% year over year to some 376,000 students, marking the second consecutive year of headcount gains following a decade of losses.”

TRANSACTIONS
7. Comings and Goings

• FERRUM - Garrett Roth named head women’s flag football coach 

• HIRAM - Scott Pohlman named interim head softball coach

• WITTENBERG - Mike Frandsen will step away from his position as president at the end of the academic year

HIGHLIGHTS
8. Plays of the Weekend

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