SPRING ARBOR, Mich. – For the 16th straight year, Spring Arbor University will appear in the NAIA Women's Soccer National Championship.
 
The Cougars received an at-large bid when the 40-team field was announced on Friday. They'll travel to Marshall, Missouri – one of 16 opening round sites around the country – to face Holy Cross College in a First Round game on Thursday, Nov. 20.
 
The tournament's top eight seeds received first round byes. The SAU/Holy Cross winner will advance to play host Missouri Valley College, the No. 6 overall seed, on Saturday, Nov. 22, and the winner of that game will join the winners of the other campus sites to play out the rest of the tournament in Pensacola, Florida from Dec. 1-8.
 
Spring Arbor (9-4-6) was ranked No. 20 in the final regular season top 25 poll and 25th in the RPI while Holy Cross (10-6-3), making its first-ever national tournament appearance, earned its spot as the regular season champions of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) and is unranked in the poll.
 
Missouri Valley will be waiting in the Second Round. The Vikings are the tournament champions of the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC), stand at 16-0-4, and are ranked No. 4 in the final rankings.
 
Spring Arbor and Holy Cross will kick off at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday. The Second Round match on Saturday is scheduled for a 1 p.m. ET start.