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Susquehanna will meet Aggies in playoffs
SELINSGROVE -- In its first NCAA playoff game in nearly two decades, Susquehanna will actually face a familiar foe.
Delaware Valley, in the NCAA Division III playoffs for the first time since 2005, will host the Crusaders, a former Middle Atlantic Conference rival, on Saturday in the opening round the 32-team tournament.
Kickoff is slated for noon.
Delaware Valley, which went 9-1 overall and a perfect 7-0 in the MAC, will make its third trip to the NCAA playoffs and the first since 2005. The Aggies reached the quarterfinals in both 2004 and 2005.
Susquehanna, with an 8-2 mark -- equalling its win total of the previous three seasons combined -- won the Liberty League title in its last year in the league (the Crusaders are moving to the Centennial Conference in 2010) with a win at Union on Saturday. It was Susquehanna's first league title since 1999 and gave the Crusaders their first NCAA playoff berth since reaching the semifinals in 1991.
The matchup will be the 44th meeting since the series began in 1951. The Crusaders own a 26-17 series lead, winning in the teams' last meeting in 2006 with a 17-10 upset in Doylestown. The Aggies had won the previous three meetings between the two schools, although SU coach Steve Briggs is 9-4 in 13 career games against Delaware Valley.
The Division III playoffs are broken up into four brackets of eight teams apiece with no official seed or regions. The winner of the Delaware Valley-Susquehanna contest will meet the winner of the Albright-Alfred contest that will take place at Alfred.
The upper portion of the bracket includes defending champion Mount Union College hosting Washington & Jefferson and Maine Maritime at Montclair State University.
The Division III championship game -- known as the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl after the legendary SU head coach -- is Dec. 19 in Salem, Virginia.
Ticket prices for Saturday's game are $8 for adults and $4 for students. Tickets will go on sale starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday and no complimentary tickets will be available.
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