Behrend Lions to Face Gettysburg Bullets in 2005 NCAA Tournament
Penn
State Behrend is seeded sixth and will open the 2005 NCAA Division III
Tournament on Thursday, November 10, against the number-three seeded
Gettysburg Bullets. The Mid-Atlantic Regional is hosted by the Juniata
Eagles who are currently ranked second in the country in the latest
Division III CSTV/AVCA Coaches Poll.
Behrend (26-7) will battle Gettysburg (20-12) at 6:00 p.m. in the single-elimination tournament with the winner squaring off against the Eastern (28-5) versus Scranton (21-17) winner on Friday, November 11 at a time to be announced. Juniata, a national power that sports a 31-1 mark, earns a bye and will play the winner of Thursday's 3:30 p.m. contest that features Gallaudet (22-11) versus Notre Dame (MD) 28-11.
This morning the NCAA announced the field of 60 teams for this year's tournament. Automatic bids were received by 37 conferences, while five were selected from Pool B. Eighteen berths were reserved for Pool C, which consists of institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not conference champions.
Behrend earned the AMCCs automatic berth after beating Pitt-Bradford three games to one in the semi-finals. Then they dropped Penn State Altoona in the championship finale 3-0. After cruising to a 30-19 win in game one, the blue and white had to pull off a come from behind 32-30 win in game two, before ending the match with another close win, 30-26.