CHADRON, Neb. – Chadron State women's wrestling is ready for history this Saturday when the Eagles compete at the first-ever NCAA Women's Wrestling Regional Tournament this Saturday, hosted by Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.

This year marks the first time that the women's wrestling postseason will be contested under the NCAA umbrella since officially becoming an NCAA sport last year.

The two-day tournament is set to have action begin at 10 a.m. (MT) on both Saturday and Sunday (11 a.m. local/CT). 

The Lineup
Here is the lineup that Chadron State is scheduled to have compete at this weekend's tournament. Under NCAA rules, which are different from previous NCWWC regional competitions, teams can only have one wrestler compete at each weight. Each wrestler has been given a bracket tournament seed, which is listed in parentheses.

103: (4) Brianna Vollendroff (Sr., Oroville, Calif.)
110: (5) Rylee Balcazar (So., Fort Lupton, Colo.)
117: (7) Adrianna Lopez (R-Fr., Colorado Springs, Colo.)
124: (8) Ana Rojas-Zamora (R-Jr., Sweeny, Tex.)
131: (4) Piper Cadden (R-So., Gilbert, Ariz.)
138: (11) Nevaeh Leonard (Jr., Yankton, S.D.)
145: (10) Meredith Nash (R-Fr., Reno, Nev.)
160: (7) Maria Arellano (R-Jr., Fresno, Calif.)
180: (11) Cosette Desrosiers (R-Fr., Nampa, Idaho)
207: (4) Esther Peters (So., McKinney, Tex.)

The Tournament
The Eagles have a four-way streak going of sending exactly four qualifiers to nationals, but with changes in structuring this year, it will be a harder task than previous years to match that total. 

For starters, the national championship field has been cut to 18 participants at each weight, down from 32 last year. The number of regions has been cut from eight to six while the top three regional finishers advance, rather than the top four from previous years. All 10 regional brackets will have between 11 and 15 competing wrestlers.

The trimming of regions from eight to six also consolidates the quality of programs and wrestlers in each region. Among the 15 schools (including CSC) competing at this weekend's tournament, six are nationally-ranked teams - No. 2 McKendree, No. 8 Colorado Mesa, No. T-12 Fort Hays State, No. T-15 Simon Fraser, No. 18 William Jewell and No. 21 Lindenwood. The regional tournament is also scheduled to have 10 wrestlers ranked in the national top three at their respective weights according to the latest NWCA rankings. 

Despite Chadron State having four nationally-ranked Open Mat wrestlers - No. 12 Brianna Vollendroff at 103 pounds, No. 16 Rylee Balcazar at 110 pounds, No. 19 Piper Cadden at 131 pounds and No. 10 Esther Peters at 207 - the Eagles do not have a wrestler that will be one of the top-three seeded wrestlers in their weight class, meaning that, at least on paper, CSC may have to pull some upsets to qualify for nationals even though four Eagle wrestlers (Vollendroff, Balcazar, Peters and Ana Rojas-Zamora) have a national championship qualification on their career resumes.

Vollendroff's field at 103 is scheduled to feature No. 1/1 Heather Crull of McKendree and No. 3/3 Mia Zuniga of Colorado Mesa and NR/No. 10 Juliana Alejandro of William Jewell, in addition to NR/No. 16 Mia Siquieros of Adams State, who Vollendroff defeated for the RMAC title. 

At 110, Balcazar will need to contend with No. 3/3 Gabriele Tedesco of McKendree, No. 7/9 Emily Mendez of William Jewell, NR/No. 11 Adriana Gomez of Colorado Mesa (who has defeated Balcazar twice, including in the RMAC final) and NR/No. 15 Kate Cooper of Lindenwood.

Adrianna Lopez - just recently named the RMAC"s Co-Freshman of the Year, is seeded seventh in a loaded 11-wrestler bracket that features more top-10 nationally-ranked wrestlers than qualification spots, with No. 1/1 Yu Sakamoto of McKendree, No. 5/4 Alex Waitsman of William Jewell, No. 8/8 Sophia Cornish of Colorado Mesa and No. 9/9 Leiannah Landreth of Fort Hays State all taking part. 

Cadden will be the No. 4 seed in a 131-pound class that features No. 1/1 Cameron Guerin of McKendree and two other wrestlers ranked just slightly ahead of Cadden at No. 19 - Simon Fraser's Agnia Krakovska at No. 15 and Colorado Mesa's Hania Halvorson at No. 17. 

Peters will also need to earn a signature win to qualify - the nation's No. 10-ranked heavyweight must beat out at least one of No. 1/3 Tristan Kelly of McKendree or RMAC rivals No. 7/8 Jayleen Sekona of CMU or No. 8/9 Julia Richey of Simon Fraser. 

Seven of CSC's 10 competing wrestlers are seeded in the top eight of their respective weights.