SAU Women’s Basketball Earns Spot in NAIA Tournament

(March 8, 2024 10:54 AM ET) On Thursday evening, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announced the 64-team field for the 2024 NAIA Women’s Basketball National Championship, and for the first time since 1999, Spring Arbor University will be going dancing.

The tournament format features 16, four-team pods to be played at campus sites – announced last week – around the nation. The first round games will be played on Friday, Mar. 15 with the second round taking place on Saturday, Mar. 16 at those campus sites.

The winners of those 16 pods advance to the NAIA National Tournament Final Site in Sioux City, Iowa, where those games will be played over the span of a week at the Tyson Events Center from Mar. 21-26.

Spring Arbor (23-7) earned its way into the tournament as an at-large selection. The Cougars are the No. 9 seed in the Liston Quadrant and face off against Langston University (Okla.) in the first round, which will be played at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa. Joining SAU and Langston in the pod are Dordt, the No. 1 seed, and 16^th-seeded Oakland City University (Ind.).

The winners of the two Friday games meet on Saturday with a trip to Sioux City on the line.

Spring Arbor is making its fifth all-time appearance in the national tournament and first since the 1998-99 campaign. Head coach John Williams and the Cougars finished third in the Crossroads League this season and racked up 23 wins – the most in a single-season since 1998-99 when the program had 31 victories.

Langston currently stands at 24-7 and earned its spot in the tournament as the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament runner-up.

Oakland City is making its second straight appearance in the tournament after finishing as the River States Conference Tournament runner-up and owns a 23-7 overall record.

Dordt, currently ranked No. 4 in the Top 25 rankings, boasts a 29-2 record and was the Great Plains Athletic Conference regular season and tournament champion.