For the third time in six years, the John Carroll University women's basketball team has earned a bid into the NCAA Division III Championship tournament.

This time, it was an automatic bid.

The Blue Streaks learned Monday afternoon that they will face Middlebury (VT) College in a first round game on Friday, March 1, at 5:00 p.m. The game will take place at Billera Hall on the campus of DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.

DeSales will host Shenandoah (VA) University in the other first round match-up at 7:00 p.m.

The two Friday winners will meet in the second round, also at Billera Hall, on Saturday, March 2, at 7:00 p.m.

John Carroll, with a record of 22-6, is making its third overall appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament. The Blue Streaks are the champions of both the regular season and tournament in the Ohio Athletic Conference and received the league's automatic bid into the Division III Championship by virtue of a  61-58 victory over Ohio Northern in the OAC Tournament final on Saturday.

In 2014, JCU qualified as an at-large team and defeated Texas Lutheran in the opening round before falling to host Thomas More in the second round.

In 2015, the Blue Streaks again qualified as an at-large team and suffered a first round setback to Maryville (TN) University.

From its inception in 1970 until 2014, the Blue Streak had never qualified for the national postseason tournament.

John Carroll has never before faced DeSales, Shenandoah or Middlebury.

Middlebury (19-7) is making its fourth trip to the NCAA postseason, and its first since 1998. 

A 5-5 record New England Small College Athletic Conference was good enough to get Middlebury to the fifth seed in the conference tournament. The Panthers beat Trinity in the opening round of the tournament, then was knocked out of the NESCAC tournament by Bowdoin in the semifinals.

Middlebury is one of three teams from the NESCAC to make it into the field of this year's NCAA tournament.

DeSales (25-2) is making its 13th appearance and is 5-12 in its previous 12 trips to the Division III Championship.

The Bulldogs were undefeated in Middle Atlantic Conference play (14-0) and undefeated at home (14-0) in 2018-19. DeSales won the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC)  Freedom tournament with wins over King's College (Pa.), and Misericordia  University.

During the regular season, DeSales' only losses came early in the year on the road against University of Scranton, and The Sage College, and both defeats were by less than ten points. DeSales last made the tournament in 2017, where they lost in the first round Husson. The team has many senior and juniors who were a part of the 2017 team.

Shenandoah (16-13) is appearing in the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2000 and for the third time overall.

The Hornets are one of the true "Cinderella" teams in this year's field of 64. They went 8-10 in conference, leading them to earn the eight seed in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. After winning a "play in" game against Bridgewater, Shenandoah knocked off the top seed, Guilford, in overtime, then beat Randolph-Macon in the semifinals to advance to the conference championship game. The Hornets beat Washington and Lee to get the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Shenandoah is on a hot streak, having won its past six games after going 10-13 over the first 23.

Click here for the 2019 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship bracket.

Click here for a printable version of the 2019 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship Bracket