NJCAA released Div. II National Tournament bracket

The Southwestern Community College Spartans know their route if they want to win back-to-back national championships.

The NJCAA released its Div. II national tournament draw Tuesday afternoon and placed the defending national champions as the No. 5 seed, scheduling an opening round contest against Dakota County based out of Rosemount, Minn for Wednesday, March 21 at 1 p.m. central time.

The two teams have faced their fair share of common opponents (Dakota County is 2-4 against ICCAC foes this season) and both boast similar overall records while also trending in the right direction for the biggest tournament of the year.

Sothwestern sits at 26-7, having won its last four games in a row while the Blue Knights of Dakota County have a 22-8 record and have won their last eight games straight.

A more in-depth preview of the Spartans matchup with the Blue Knights can be found in an upcoming edition of the News Advertiser.

If it were to advance, Southwestern would likely face fourth-seeded Louisburg (28-4) in the second round/quarterfinal, which would be a rematch from last year’s national title game.

Louisburg’s first round matchup is with 13-seed Erie (18-9) based out of Williamsville, N.Y.

Assuming the Spartans can make it out of their quarter of the draw they could face the No. 1 seed Triton Trojans (29-4) in the semifinals. The eighth-seeded team is the hosting school, Danville Area Community College (26-5).

The four seeds on the other half of the bracket are No. 2 Pima (28-4), No. 7 Richard Bland (22-9), No. 3 Cuyahoga (29-1) who was ranked as the No. 1 team in the country in the final NJCAA Div. II poll and No. 6 South Suburban (28-5).