KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The University of St. Francis women's basketball team will be headed to South Dakota after it learned its bracket positioning in the 64-team NAIA National Tournament Opening Round on Thursday night.  The Saints (25-4) will compete in the Mitchell Bracket of the Duer Quadrant, which will be hosted by NAIA No. 9-ranked Dakota Wesleyan University next Friday and Saturday (March 13-14).

Sioux Center, Iowa is host to the NAIA National Tournament Final Site, which will take place March 19-24 at the Tyson Events Center.  USF is very familiar with that venue having made seven consecutive appearances (2016-2022) to the tournament. The winners of each of the 16 four-team brackets advance to the Final Site.

Head coach John McGinty's club is the No. 15 seed in the four-team Mitchell Bracket and will square off against No. 2 seed Dakota Wesleyan University (S.D.) (25-6) at 6 pm on Friday.  The Fighting Saints earned their bid by securing one of the two automatic berths out of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference, while the Tigers earned their bid by winning the Great Plains Athletic Conference Tournament championship.

No. 7-seeded Eastern Oregon University (26-6) will take on No. 10 seed College of the Ozarks (Mo.) (21-10) in the 7:45 pm game on Friday.  Eastern Oregon gained its Opening Round bid by earning one of the two automatic berths out of the Cascade Collegiate Conference, while College of the Ozarks earned their bid by securing one of the 29 at-large berths.

The winners of Friday's contests advance to Saturday's 6 pm championship game for the right to go to the Final Site one week later in Sioux City.

For complete NAIA National Tournament Opening Round information, go to NAIA.

For the full NAIA National Tournament Bracket, go to Bracket.

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