INDIANAPOLIS – Two teams from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference were slotted in the first release of the NCAA Division II Midwest Region women’s basketball rankings on Wednesday.
The Great Midwest, Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), are all included in the region rankings. Each conference receives one automatic qualifier spot to the NCAA Championship bracket with five at-large selections allotted to the highest ranked remaining teams.
League-leading Kentucky Wesleyan (19-5, 15-3 G-MAC) and third-place Cedarville (18-6, 14-4 G-MAC) are ranked back-to-back and No. 9 and 10.
Four teams have clinched their Great Midwest Championship playoff spots with four more to go in the course of the regular season. Walsh and Findlay are also locked into the postseason at this point in the season.
The Panthers had 15-game win streak come to an end but are still positioned well to potentially host the semifinals and final of the conference tournament in Owensboro.
Kentucky Wesleyan hosts the West Virginia schools and then has a gauntlet to end the year on the road at Findlay and Hillsdale.
Cedarville has been in this position as recent as last year when the Yellow Jackets entered the postseason as the top seed and regular-season conference champ. The program’s bid for an at-large selection fell just shy when the selection committee made its picks for the NCAA Championship bracket.
The Yellow Jackets snapped out of a brief three-game slide and on paper, are probably considered favorites in all four of their remaining games.
Drury and Lewis, both from the GLVC, lead the first rankings. The next three spots are occupied by the GLIAC’s Grand Valley State, Ashland and Northern Michigan. Truman State follows with Southern Indiana and Michigan Tech right behind.