The top-ranked North Georgia College & State University softball team will depart from campus for the NCAA Division-II National Championship at 1 p.m. today in front of Memorial Hall Gymnasium.

Fans are encouraged to send off the Saints, who face Dixie State in the first round of the team’s first tournament appearance at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Va.

North Georgia (48-3) enters the tournament having won 40 of its last 41 games and its last 25, including a sweep during the Peach Belt Conference Tournament. The Saints have the nation’s best winning percentage at .940 and are two wins away from breaking a school record for wins in a season.