Sophomore all-American forward Kayla Carder leads the North Country Community College team into the NJCAA Division III women’s baskeball championships for the second straight year. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

SARANAC LAKE — The brackets are set for the NJCAA Division III women’s basketball championships, and the North Country Community College Saints are the fifth seed among the eight teams competing in the tournament, which takes place March 12-14 in Rockford Illinois.

The NJCAA announced the lineup for the championships Thursday afternoon, and North Country will begin play with a game on Thursday, March 12 against Northland, Minnesota, starting at noon. The matchup is the opening game of the tournament and the first of four quarterfinal contests being played that day.

The Saints were ranked fifth in the NJCAA Division III women’s poll at the end of the regular season and carry a 28-3 record into championships. They’ll face a Northland Pioneers squad that owns a 20-5 record and is ranked eighth in the national. Northland brings 10-game winning streak into the national championship.

Despite being ranked ahead of the Pioneers nationally and owning a better record, the Saints actually drew a lower seeding for the tournament. Northland is the fourth seed, which puzzled Saints head coach Jerrad Dumont and his players.

A year ago in their first trip in school history to the national championships, the Saints entered the tournament as the second seed and finished third, posting a 2-1 record. The tournament format guarantees that each team plays three games. Quarterfinal winners move into the semifinals while first-round losers move into the consolation bracket.

“It was a little frustrating, but realistically, it just means a different jersey color,” Dumont said of his team being seeded fifth. “We’ve gone 7-1 against nationally-ranked teams this season, and that’s better than any team in the tournament. I think the lower seeding will just add fuel to the fire for our players.”

Also in the Saints bracket is No. 1 seed Massasoit and eighth-seed Cedar Valley. Those two teams square off at 2 p.m. Thursday and the winner of that game will take on the winner of the North Country-Northland matchup in the semifinal round Friday.

The other side of the bracket sees No. 2 Rock Valley and No. 7 Passaic County playing in one quarterfinal, while defending national champion and No. 3 seed Hostos and Western Tech face each other in another quarterfinal.

Although the Saints did compete in the national championships a season ago, sophomore all-American and 1,000-plus point scorer Kayla Carder is the only member of the team who was a starter in 2019. Alexis Poirier and Taylor Duffy were also with North Country a season ago in backup roles but did spend time on the court. The rest of the Saints are newcomers to the national tournament this year, and its a group that has had plenty of success this season and enters the championships with high hopes.

“We’re tough — that’s the best thing I can say about this team,” Dumont said. “We are strong rebounding and we’ve played good defense all year. It may all come down to whether or not we can score.”