INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Regular Season Co-Champion and Tournament Champion Trinity University (17-0-3) earned its second-straight berth into the 64-team NCAA Div. III Men's Soccer Tournament, while Co-Regular Season Champion Colorado College (15-2-3) earned its second-straight berth in the tournament field via one of the 21 at-large bids. NCAA Release | Tournament Bracket

This year marks the second-straight year and fourth time in the last six years the SCAC will be represented by multiple teams in the national field.

Trinity claimed its eighth SCAC Men’s Soccer Tournament Championship title and 22nd overall crown on Sunday, knocking off St. Thomas 4-2.    

Trinity will host Belhaven (11-3-4) for its NCAA opening round contest, the automatic qualifier out of the Collegiate Conference of the South (CCS), on Saturday in San Antonio, Texas. Historically, this marks the first time an SCAC opponent has matched up against a program from the CCS. On the other side of the bracket, American Southwest Conference champion, Hardin-Simmons (12-5-2) takes on Bowdoin (7-5-5) an at-large selection out of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC).

33rd-year head coach Paul McGinlay leads Trinity, which is making its 26th national tournament appearance. The Tigers got strong performances this season from SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Year Adam Knutson and First Team All-SCAC honoree Hunter Cain. The duo combined for 26 of Trinity’s 69 goal and dished out eight assists for 60 total points. On the defensive side of the ball, First Team All-SCAC defender JonConnor Rule leads a Tiger defense that allowed just 10 goals on the year and posted a 0.50 goals-against-average. Trinity, which won the 2003 national title and finished as the runners-up in 2007 is 45-23-5 all-time in NCAA postseason play.

Colorado College will also play host and square off against Pacific Lutheran (13-2-5), the automatic qualifier out of the Northwest Conference (NWC). The Lutes are no stranger to squaring off against an SCAC opponent, as Saturday’s fixture will mark the third time in the last four tournaments Pacific Lutheran has faced a conference squad. Pacific Lutheran advanced past Trinity in the opening round of the 2021 Tournament via penalty kicks and lost to St. Thomas, 2-0 in the second round of the 2022 Tournament. Overall the SCAC is 5-1-1 all-time against NWC opponents in the NCAA Tournament.

The winner of the Colorado College/Pacific Lutheran match will take on the winner of the match between the AQ recipients from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) and the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) respectively in Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (13-3-3) and Oglethorpe (9-2-6).

The Tigers earned the program’s 22nd NCAA Tournament berth and are making consecutive appearances for the first time since 2002. CC, which is coming off a magical run last season to the Elite Eight, owns 10-20-2 record in its previous 21 trips. The Tigers enter the tournament with its best record since 1992, when the Tigers made it to the Final Four.

The CC Tigers are led by 10th-year head coach Scott Palguta, who collected his second-straight and third overall SCAC Coaching-Staff-of-the-Year honor this year. Offensively CC was paced by Second Team All-SCAC selection in Wyatt Linggi. Linggi heads into this weekend’s NCAA Tournament with a team best 18 points on seven goals and four assists. Defensively, three-time SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Year Curtis Hale spearheads a defensive unit that sports the nation's second-best goals-against average (0.400) and second-best shots-per-game average (21.8)

Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites Nov. 22 and 23 or 23 and 24. Winners of the four sectionals will advance to the national semifinals, which take place Dec. 5 at Peter Johann Memorial Field in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as hosts. The national championship game will be played Dec. 7.  The Division III women’s soccer national semifinals and championship games will also be held at Kerr Soccer Stadium with games on Dec. 6 and Dec. 8.

Forty-three conferences were awarded automatic qualification for the championship. The other 21 berths were reserved for an at-large berth, which includes institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that did not win their conference championship.

All tournament games leading up to the national semifinals will be played on the campuses of the competing institutions. Sixteen sites will host four teams for first-and second-round competition Nov. 15 and 16 or 16 and 17.