The 2022 NJCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship is set to begin Wednesday at the Rochester Region Sports Center in Rochester, MN.  The championship tournament returns in 2022 after being cancelled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The 2022 championship, having expanded from eight teams to 12, will feature a pair of teams from Region 3.  Onondaga Community College was awarded the third overall seed as the Region 3 and NJCAA North District Champion and will receive a bye into the quarterfinal round.  Region 3's second bid was awarded to North Country Community College as the Regional Runner-up; the Saints enter the tournament as the #12 seed.

The Lazers enter the tournament as the third seed with a 24-2 record riding a 22 game winning streak and return to the national championship tournament for the first time since 2018.  OCC defeated North Country CC 57-45 in the Region 3 Championship game led by a game high 19 points from Tournament Most Valuable Player Hannah Durrand.  Durrand is OCC's second leading scorer on the season averaging 12.6 points per game.  The Lazers' top scorer is Region 3 Player of the Year Macey Deordio at 16.3 points per game.  Onondaga will await the winner of the #6-#11 first round matchup between #6 Rock Valley College from Region 4 in Illinois and #1 Hostos Community College from Region 15 in New York.  OCC is set to hit the court against the either Rock Valley or Hostos at 9:00pm EST on Thursday night.

North Country received one of the four at-large bids for the 2022 championship finishing the season 19-4.  The Saints will be making their third consecutive trip to the NJCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championships having finished 3rd in 2019 and falling in the quarterfinals in 2020.  NCCC is lead by sophomore guard Lavender Ward who leads the team in multiple statistical categories.  She is fifth in the nation in scoring at 22.4 points per game, second in assists at 6.6 per game, and 12th in steals per game averaging 3.5 per contest.  The Saints will open the tournament again st #5 seed Monroe College - Bronx from Region 15 who enter the tournament as the NJCAA Northeast District Champions having defeated #11 seeded Hostos in the Region 15 Championship game.  The Saints are scheduled to take on the fifth seeded Express at 3:00pm EST on Wednesday afternoon.