SLIPPERY ROCK — Despite its 42-38 PSAC championship game loss at Bloomsburg Saturday, Slippery Rock University’s football team has reached the NCAA Division II playoffs.

The Rock (9-2) is seeded fifth in Super Region 1 and travels to fourth-seeded Winston-Salem State (9-1) Saturday. It will mark SRU’s first postseason appearance since 1999.

Kickoff is at noon.

“We feel like we deserve to get in,” SRU coach George Mihalik said. “It would have been an atrocity to overlook us.”

Winston-Salem State reached the Division II championship game last season. Butler graduate Nate Hartung is an all-conference offensive lineman with the team.

Winston-Salem State was scheduled to play Virginia State over the weekend in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship game — a game that figured to impact the Super Region 1 playoff field — but the game was cancelled Friday after the Winston-Salem State quarterback was attacked during an altercation at the pre-game banquet Friday.

A Virginia State player was arrested and charged with assault. Virginia State, a playoff contender, received a postseason ban.

“I don’t think that game not being played helped us at all,” Mihalik said. “Our strength of schedule is better than Virginia State’s and that’s part of the criteria for determining the playoff field.”

Undefeated Shepherd (10-0) and Bloomsburg (10-1) are seeded first and second in the region and received first-round byes. No. 3 seed West Chester (10-1) hosts 6th-seed American International (10-1) in the other first-round game.

The SRU-Wniston-Salem State winner travels to Shepherd next weekend.

“We’re one of only 24 teams in the nation to get an opportunity to play for a national championship,” Mihalik said. “There’s 49 teams in our region — far more than any other region — and only six get in.

“That speaks well for where our program is at.”