INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Centennial champion Muhlenberg learned its NCAA Tournament path as the conference automatic qualifier while Johns Hopkins and Franklin & Marshall earned at-large bids into the 64-team field. Both Hopkins and F&M were selected as host sites for the opening weekend.
Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites Nov. 18-19 or 19-20. Winners of the four sectionals will advance to the national semifinals, which take place Dec. 1 at Kerr Soccer Stadium in Salem, Virginia, with Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the City of Salem serving as hosts. The national championship game will be played Dec. 3.
No. 19 Johns Hopkins earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and will host the first and second round at Homewood Field. Hopkins will take on Lehman in the first round on Saturday, November 12 while Scranton and John Carroll will square off in the other match. Hopkins (12-1-7) is making its 19th NCAA Tournament appearance and fifth consecutive. Lehman (10-4-2) earned the automatic qualifier after winning the CUNYAC Championship on Saturday.
F&M (13-3-3) will host St. Joseph's (Conn.) on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Diplomats will be making their 12th all-time appearance in NCAAs, including a Centennial Conference record ninth consecutive appearance. The Diplomats will be hosting NCAA Tournament matches for the seventh time during this current run of NCAA Tournament success and for the eighth time in program history. Cortland State (12-5-2) and Medaille (12-1-6) will square off in the other matchup in the Lancaster regional.
Muhlenberg (8-5-7) will travel to Lexington, Virginia, to face Case Western Reserve in the first round on Saturday. The other first-round match at the site pits host Washington and Lee against Brevard. Muhlenberg is making its 16th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and has an all-time NCAA record of 9-14-4. The last two times the Mules were selected to the NCAA field, in 2010 and 2014, they made it to the second weekend and the "Sweet 16." Muhlenberg's best showing in the NCAA Tournament was in 1995, when it reached the "Final Four" - one of only two teams in College athletic history to do so. Case Western Reserve (10-3-3) was ranked 24th in Division III in last week's United Soccer Coaches poll and finished 5-1-1 in the tough University Athletic Association, which placed four teams in the field of 64. Among the Spartans' results was a one-goal loss to undefeated, second-ranked Chicago.