The final four NCAA Division III women's basketball teams arrived in Rochester, MN, on Wednesday to kick off a championship weekend that will crown this year's national champion Saturday evening. The top 64 teams in the country representing 43 conferences were selected by the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Committee in Indianapolis, on February 26 and have played down over the past two weekends-and the remaining four teams will play at the Mayo Civic Center beginning with two semifinal games on Friday, followed by the championship game Saturday.

Back to defend their 2017 national championship title is Amherst College out of Amherst, MA. Ranked No. 1 in the final coaches poll, the Mammoths bring in a perfect 31-0 record into the national semifinal game. Amherst will square off against the Bowdoin Polar Bears of Brunswick, ME. Bowdoin was the third-ranked team nationally and enters Friday's matchup against Amherst with a 28-2 record.

The second semifinal game Friday will be between Thomas More College of Crestville, KY, going up against the Knights of Wartburg College from Waverly, IA. The Thomas More Saints come into the game as the #3 ranked team in the country with a 30-1 record. National champions in 2016 the Saints will square off with Wartburg in the 7:30 game Friday night. Wartburg finished the year as the nation's No. 2-ranked team and comes into the semifinal game with a perfect 31-0 record.

The semifinal games will be played at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 16. The national championship game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 17. The tournament brackets detailing the teams that are vying to compete in the national championship can be found at https://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/basketball-women/d3.

For more information, please contact Trevor Magnuson of Rochester Sports at 507-280-4725 or tmagnuson@rochsports.com or Donny Nadeau, Sports Information Director of Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, at 507 429-2596 or dnadeau@smumn.edu.