LEBANON, Ill. - With the completion of the 2021-22 regular season in the books, the Great Lakes Valley Conference has officially released the bracket and first-round match-ups for the 2022 GLVC Women's Basketball Championship Tournament that begins with first round games on Monday, Feb. 28 at eight campus sites with the winners of those games, plus top-seeded Southern Indiana, will advance to First Community Arena at the Vadalabene Center on the campus of SIU Edwardsville on March 3-6.

 
All 15 league schools will compete in this year's GLVC Women's Basketball Tournament as each of the 15 teams were seeded based on the final GLVC Point Rating System rankings after the conclusion of Saturday's final regular season contests.
 

The quarterfinal rounds of the women's tournament are scheduled for 12 and 2:30 p.m. respectively on both March 3 or March 4 with the semifinals scheduled for 12 and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 5 and the championship game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start on Sunday, March 6. The winner of the GLVC Tournament receives the league's automatic bid into the 2022 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament.

McKendree (3-22, 2-16 GLVC, 2.00) earned the No. 14 seed in this year's GLVC Tournament and will open the tournament on Monday with a 5:30 p.m. first round game against No. 3 seed and Central Division Champion Missouri-St. Louis (21-4, 17-3 GLVC, 4.30) at the Mark Twain Building on the UMSL campus. Monday's game will be a rematch from Saturday's regular season finale at UMSL as the Tritons picked up an 84-54 win on its home court over the Bearcats. The winner of the UMSL-McKendree game will advance to SIUE and face the winner of the game between No. 6 seeded Illinois-Springfield (16-9, 11-8 GLVC, 3.38) and No. 11 seed Missouri S&T (11-15, 8-12 GLVC, 2.88), who meet on Monday in Springfield, Ill., at 5:30 p.m. Those two winners will meet on Friday, March 4 at 2:30 p.m. in the fourth of four quarterfinal games at First Community Arena.

 
The Bearcats come into the postseason having lost a season-high long nine consecutive games since picking up a 58-48 win at William Jewell on Jan. 27. Along with playing at UMSL on Saturday, the Bearcats will playing its fourth game in a week in Monday's GLVC Tournament first round game. Since joining the league in 2012, McKendree is making its fourth trip to the GLVC Tournament, all of which have come in the last seven seasons since the arrival of McKendree seventh-year head coach Kari Kerkhoff. The Bearcats are 0-3 all-time in the GLVC Tournament with its most recent appareance coming in 2019 when the Bearcats fell 87-79 to Drury in a quarterfinal round game at SIUE. In that game against the Panthers, Bearcat redshirt senior guard Sydney Dickhoff (Pekin, Ill./Pekin Community) scored a career high 38 points and that 38 point game was one short of the school record of 39 points. The Bearcats first tournament appearance came in 2016 as the Bearcats lost in the first round at Indianapolis (60-47) and then returned to the tournament in 2019 and fell in the quarterfinal round to Drury (86-54) at SIUE. 

Meanwhile, UMSL, who is ranked 25th in the latest WBCA Division II Coaches' Poll, comes into Monday's GLVC Tournament first round rematch with McKendree having won just two of its last four games to close the regular season as along with picking up that win on Saturday against McKendree, the Tritons also defeated Lindenwood (67-56) at home on Feb. 19. UMSL is making its 16th all-time appearance in the GLVC Tournament and its 11th in the last 13 seasons as the Tritons are 6-14 all-time, including going 1-1 at last year's tournament as they opened with 69-67 win over Lewis, before falling 75-62 to Drury. 

East Division Champion and top-seeded Southern Indiana (21-4, 15-2 GLVC, 4.44) concluded the regular season with a 68-42 win on Saturday over Lindenwood and enters the GLVC Tournament as the No. 1 seed and earned a bye into the quarterfinals. The Screaming Eagles will face the winner of the Monday's first round match-up between No. 8 seeded Southwest Baptist (15-13, 10-10 GLVC, 3.13) and No. 9 seeded University of Indianapolis (10-16, 7-11 GLVC, 3.00) on Thursday, March 3 at 12 p.m. in the first of four quarterfinal games. Southwest Baptist and UIndy will meet in Bolivar, Mo., on Monday at 5:30 p.m. 

West Division Champion and No. 2 seeded and fourth-ranked Drury (27-4, 17-3 GLVC, 4.30) opens the tournament with a 6 p.m. home game on Monday in Springfield, Mo., against No. 15 seeded William Jewell (1-24, 0-19 GLVC, 1.63). The Panthers claimed the second seed in a tiebreaker with UMSL due to the Panthers' win over top-seeded USI in their match-up earlier this season, while UMSL fell to USI in their lone match-up this season. The winner of the Drury-WJC game will take on the winner of No. 7 seeded Rockhurst (15-11, 11-9 GLVC. 3.35) and No. 10 Lindenwood (11-14, 8-10, 2.92) on Thursday, March 3 at 2:30 p.m. The Hawks and Lions will face each other on Monday in Kansas City, Mo., at 7 p.m.

Fifth-seeded Lewis University (13-14, 11-8 GLVc, 3.50) ended its regular season with a loss on Saturday against Missouri S&T and that loss moved the Flyers to the No. 5 seed as Lewis will host No. 12 seed Maryville (13-12, 9-10 GLVC, 2.83) on Monday at 5 p.m., with the winner of that game taking on the winner of No. 4 seeded Truman State (17-9, 13-5 GLVC, 3.79) and No. 13 seed Quincy (9-19, 5-15 GLVC, 2.35) on Friday, March 4 in the third of four quarterfinal games at 12 p.m. at SIUE. Truman State and Quincy play each other at 5:15 p.m. on Monday in Kirksville, Mo. 

The women's semifinal games are scheduled for 12 and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 5, with the women's final slated for a 1 p.m. start on Sunday, March 6.

Monday's game will be available to be watched online on the GLVCSN, but the league recently approved the implementation of a pay-per-view pass system for both the opening rounds on Monday and later the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals of this year's GLVC Tournament, that will be held at SIUE.