Women host St. Ambrose in quarterfinal game tonight

A pair of top-15 teams will lead the contenders as the Midwest Collegiate Conference Women?s Basketball Tournament begins Thursday night with four quarterfinal games at campus sites.

Iowa Wesleyan is the third seed and will host sixth seed and defending tournament champion St. Ambrose in its quarterfinal contest tonight.

The Tigers come in hot, having won 14 of their last 17 games, including a regular season split with second-seeded Mt. Mercy. IWC is looking for its sixth trip to the national tournament in seven years, while St. Ambrose advanced to final 16 at nationals last year and split two games with Iowa Wesleyan in the regular season.

Top-seeded Grand View and Mt. Mercy, however, are the favorites in the tournament, which continues Saturday with semifinals and the championship game Monday night.

Grand View has already clinched an automatic berth to the NAIA Division II National Championships as the MCC regular season champions, while the conference?s second automatic berth is undecided. That bid will go to the conference tournament champion, but if Grand View follows up its regular season title with a tournament championship, then Mt. Mercy would go to nationals based on its second-place finish in the regular season.

Grand View will hold home court advantage throughout the tournament. The Vikings are ranked ninth nationally in NAIA Division II and come in on a 15-game winning streak. GVU finished 17-1 in the MCC in the regular season and will host AIB in a battle of Des Moines schools Thursday night. The Eagles won the tournament?s eighth seed in their first year as a conference member.

Mt. Mercy is ranked 12th nationally and is the tournament?s second seed. The Mustangs come in on an eight-game winning streak and host No. 7 seed Ashford in the quarterfinals. Mt. Mercy finished two games behind Grand View in the league standings and split a pair of games with the top-seeded Vikings in the regular season.

The fourth quarterfinal features No. 5 seed Viterbo traveling to face fourth-seeded William Penn. The Lady Statesmen won both meetings over the V-Hawks in the regular season, finishing one game ahead of Viterbo in the standings.

Results and broadcast information are available on the MCC Web site at www.midwestcollegiateconference.com.