INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (JMU Athletics) – James Madison women’s soccer will be taking on three-seeded Ohio State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, as the Dukes earned an automatic bid to the dance after capturing their first Sun Belt Championship on Saturday.

The match will take place in Columbus, Ohio on Friday, Nov. 15th at 6 p.m. ET. The only previous meeting between the two squads came back in 1993, with the Dukes taking a 1-0 victory in Columbus.

The Dukes will be making back-to-back appearances and their 13th overall in program history. The team also made history in winning both the regular season title and conference championship for the first time in the same season.

JMU currently stands at 12-3-5 and defeated Texas State 3-2 after making an appearance in the Sun Belt Conference Championship Match for the third consecutive year. The Dukes were the top seed and took down ULM in PK’s 4-3 in the quarterfinals before shutting out Old Dominion 1-0 in the semifinals.

Senior forward Shea Collins was named Most Outstanding Player in the tournament after she grabbed brace and an assist in the title match. Four Dukes made the All-Tournament Team, including redshirt freshman goalie Sofia DeCerb, junior defender Jordan Yang, senior forward Sophia Verrecchia, and freshman forward Ginny Lackey.

Lackey leads the JMU attack with a team-high 12 goals and nine assists, just one shy of Lexi Vanderlinden who has a team-high ten assists and two goals. DeCerb has spent most game time between the posts at just over 1761 minutes, making 54 saves for a 0.684 save percentage.

— JMU Athletics —