GLVC TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
GLVC TOURNAMENT BRACKET

NOTE: The GLVC contributed parts of this release

(LEBANON, Ill., March 2)--For the third time in four seasons, the McKendree University women's basketball team will be part of the field for the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament. 

The Bearcats punched their ticket to the 2019 GLVC Tournament when the league office unveiled the eight-team bracket Saturday evening. McKendree earned the No. 8 seed through the league's Point Rating System Rankings, which is used to determine the qualifiers for the conference post-season tournament. The Bearcats will take on the No. 1 seed Drury University -- which is also the No. 1-ranked team in NCAA Division II -- in a GLVC Tournament quarterfinal contest on Friday, March 8 at 6 p.m. 

The 2019 GLVC Tournament will be held Thursday, March 7 through Sunday, March 10 at the Vadalabene Center on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. This will be the second straight year that the event will be staged at the facility. Quarterfinal games will take place Thursday (men) and Friday (women), with the tournament semifinals set for Saturday. The championship games of the GLVC Tournament will be played on Sunday, with the men's title tilt at 1 p.m. followed by the women's championship clash at 3:30 p.m. 

All-Tournament passes are $45, while Session Flex Passes are $35, allowing access to any two of the first six sessions, excluding Sunday's finals. Single-session tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for students with a valid ID and youth 6-17 in age, while children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult.

Head coach Kari Kerkhoff has led McKendree to all three of its GLVC Tournament berths. The Bearcats hosted a first-round game in 2016 before grabbing a spot in the field for the 2018 GLVC Tournament. This will mark the second consecutive year that the Bearcats will face Drury in a GLVC Tournament match-up. 

Drury, which is 28-0 this season and earned the GLVC Tournament's top seed with a 16-0 league record, will be facing McKendree for the second time this season. The visiting Panthers posted a 72-55 win over the Bearcats back on Jan. 17 inside the Statham Center. Jordan Heberg (Romeoville, IL/Plainfield North) scored 13 points to lead McKendree while Sydney Diekhoff (Pekin, IL/Pekin Community) contributed 11 points. 

The McKendree-Drury contest will be the third of four GLVC Tournament quarterfinal games on Friday. Third-seeded Southern Indiana and No. 6 seed Bellarmine will tip off the day at noon, followed by a contest featuring No. 2 seed Lewis and seventh-seeded William Jewell at 2:30 p.m. Following the Bearcats' clash with Drury, No. 4 seed Truman State will battle No. 5 Maryville in the day's final game at 8:30 p.m. The winner of the 2019 GLVC Tournament will earn the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.