CLINTON, Iowa - For one program, it marks the school's first ever trip to the national tournament. For another, it represents the third berth in its storied history.

Either way, this weekend symbolizes the culmination of a momentous stretch for both the Ashford University (19-0-2 overall) and Benedictine College (Kan.) (15-2-1 overall) men's soccer programs.

The NAIA Men's Soccer National Championships is here. Brackets have been released, pairings have been assigned and all that's left is for the remaining 30 teams to battle for first-place hardware soon to be hoisted on Ramirez Field in Fresno, Calif.

Saturday's opening-round showdown at Augustana College's Ericson Field in Rock Island, Ill., features the host and unseeded Saints against the 10th-seeded Ravens.

An opening banquet will be held for both teams and their official parties at the Abbey Station in downtown Rock Island on Friday evening.

The winner will advance in the bracket to face either Olivet Nazarene University (Ill.) or No. 7 seed Notre Dame (Ohio) and punch its ticket to Fresno, Calif., for the remainder of the national tourney.

"We're very excited to be hosting the opening round of the national tournament," AU Head Coach Richard Markham said. "There's not a lot of change we have to go through with the normalcy of our training and the game schedule. The five-day layoff is tough, but we treat it like any other game even though the magnitude of this game is on a larger scale."

There is no barometer to measure to potential success for either team in this matchup, the first in each school's history, but there is one common denominator and opponent -- a game against Graceland University.

Both Ashford and Bendectine were winners over Graceland in respective regular-season matchups.

Markham isn't worried about going up against an unknown opponent that finished the year ranked 10th in the final NAIA Top-25 Coaches Poll.

"Statistics do tell a story about a team without knowing much about personnel," he said. "My first inclination is that we're like mirror images, but I don't scout any team or call to get a scouting report on anybody."

"It takes away from what you can do and we make adjustments within the first 10-15 minutes we're on the field," Markham added. "It's all about game management."

With national tournament appearances in 1974, 1983 and now, 2009, the Ravens, located in Atchinson, Kan., are coming off its second Heart of America Athletic Conference championship in school history (1995). Guided by Head Coach Rob Herringer, Benedictine has yielded just 11 goals in 18 games.

The Ravens are led offensively by forwards Sean Lewis (15 goals, 6 assists) and Kyle Greig (11 goals, 4 assists). Benedictine has wins over then-No. 9 Baker University and No. 11 Hastings College to its credit this year.

BC's lone losses have come at the hands of No. 19 Park University (Mo.) and Lindenwood University. The Ravens tied Lindenwood in their regular-season meeting back on Oct. 17.

Ashford battled its way into the national tournament with a MCC regular-season and tournament crown. The Saints have allowed 12 goals in 21 games in an undefeated season thus far.

AU has played its last three games on the turf at Ericson Field en route to a Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament title. The Saints are one of eight teams in the field making their first NAIA Championships appearance.

"Our kids are super excited and really enjoying this whole process," Markham said. "Some of it will be new to them, but we're going to work and we're going to be hungry for this one."

Admission for Saturday's game at 1 p.m. is $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for students, senior citizens and military personnel.