Official NCAA DII announcement
Interactive Bracket
Printable Bracket (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – A pair of institutions from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference received official bids for the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship Midwest Regional following Sunday night’s selection show aired on NCAA.com.
Great Midwest tournament champion Hillsdale earned the league’s automatic qualifying bid while Findlay earned one of the remaining at-large selections.
A total of 64 teams with eight schools from eight different regionals will compete. A total of 24 Division II conferences were awarded automatic qualification and the remaining 40 teams were selected at-large by the national committee.
The women’s Midwest Regional will be conducted in Ashland, Ohio., starting Friday, March 9, at host site Ashland University in Kates Gymnasium. The Great Midwest, Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) and Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) all comprise the Midwest Region field.
These are the league’s fifth and sixth NCAA Championship qualifiers after Ursuline and Malone qualified in 2017, Ursuline made the tourney in 2016 and Cedarville joined the field in 2015.
Eight different eight-team regionals will be played at on-campus sites March 9, 10 and 12. The eight regional champions advancing to the Women’s Elite Eight will be seeded by the Women's Basketball Committee after completion of the regionals. The 2018 NCAA Division II Women’s Elite Eight will be held at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, March 19, 21 and 23, in conjunction with the 2018 NCAA Division II Men’s Elite Eight. The men’s games will be played March 20, 22 and 24. The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and the Sioux Falls Sports Authority will serve as hosts.
The Chargers of Hillsdale (19-10 overall) are ticketed as the No. 8 seed in the Midwest Region bracket after turning the tables on three favored seeds in the Great Midwest Championship. Hillsdale’s next challenge is a formidable one against defending national champion and host institution Ashland (31-0 overall).
The Eagles are back-to-back GLIAC tournament champions and on a current 68-game winning streak with Sunday’s title win over Grand Valley State.
Findlay’s overall body of work caught the attention of the committee after advancing into the Great Midwest tourney title game as the No. 3 seed. The Oilers (22-7 overall) will face GLVC tournament champion Drury in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Start times are still to be determined at the time of release.