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Tournament Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS – The Great Lakes Valley Conference released Saturday night the bracket for the 2017 GLVC Volleyball Championship Tournament. East Division Champion Lewis University earned the No. 1 overall seed while Central Champion McKendree University gleaned the second seed and West Champion Rockhurst University was tabbed as the 3-seed. With the new three-division format, the eight-team tournament is broken down into seeds 1-8 this year based on Conference winning percentage with the division champions earning automatic bids to the event and the remaining five spots being filled by wild card teams. The tournament is again being held in East Peoria, Ill., at the EastSide Centre from Friday, Nov. 17 through Sunday, Nov. 19.
Bellarmine University, University of Illinois Springfield and University of Missouri-St. Louis respectively earned seeds 4-6, while defending champions Truman State University filled the No. 7 spot and rounding out the field in eighth was University of Indianapolis.
Lewis won the East Division title and was tabbed with the top seed after matching its near-perfect league record from last year at 17-1 while finishing 28-2 overall. The Flyers will face No. 8 Indianapolis (13-18, 8-10 GLVC) in the last match on Friday, Nov. 17 at 8:30 p.m., riding a GLVC-best eight-match win streak. They swept UIndy on the road, 3-0, Sept. 23 and closed out the season with a 3-1 win over the Greyhounds at home in the regular season finale tonight. Lewis is currently ranked 3rd in the nation but enjoyed two weeks as the highest-ranked team atop the AVCA coaches poll from Oct. 9 through Oct. 22. Lewis earns a league-best 27th berth in the postseason event and will look to extend its league record for GLVC Championship crowns with No. 10, winning its last title in 2015.
McKendree (22-7, 16-2 GLVC) won the first-ever Central Division crown and merited the second seed, battling No. 7 Truman State (17-14, 9-9 GLVC) at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17. The Bearcats enter the tournament having won seven of their last nine matches to close the season and also bring with them a five-set road win at Truman from Sept. 23. This contest will be a repeat of the 2016 league Championship final in which the Bulldogs got a 3-0 sweep over McKendree for the coveted hardware. In fact, that was the second time in two years Truman defeated the Bearcats in the postseason title tilt, as it did so for the first time in 2014, 3-2. Additionally, the Bulldogs are a perfect 6-0 at the EastSide Centre.
Rockhurst (26-6, 14-4 GLVC) claimed the West Division trophy for the third year in a row after finishing with a league-best eight consecutive wins to help itself to the third seed in the tournament. The Hawks will play No. 6 Missouri-St. Louis (12-6 GLVC) at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 17 to open the championship, which will be a rematch from Sept. 22 in the regular season where Rockhurst won 3-2 at home. The Hawks will be making their 13th appearance in the championship event and won the 2012 title, while the Tritons earn their second-straight berth to the GLVC postseason and 18th overall.
Bellarmine (23-7, 13-5 GLVC) will play its quarterfinal match on Friday, Nov. 17 at 5:30 p.m. as the No. 4 seed and take on 5-seed Illinois Springfield (21-10, 12-6 GLVC). This is the first bid to the postseason for the Prairie Stars’ program, facing the Knights that will be attending their 11th GLVC tournament but first since 2013. UIS beat out UMSL for the No. 5 seed based on a better set record in head-to-head matches. Against UMSL, UIS won 3-1 and lost 2-3 for a 5-4 mark compared to UMSL’s 4-5 clip. Earlier in the season, Bellarmine swept UIS 3-0 in Springfield.
Each of the four winners from Friday will advance to the semifinals set for 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18. The winners of each semifinal match will face each other on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 12 p.m. for a shot at being crowned 2017 GLVC Volleyball Champions.
All GLVC Championship Tournament action will be streamed for free on
GLVCSN.com, the GLVCSN iOS and Android mobile apps, and GLVCSN OTT apps on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV. For further information regarding the Conference Championship Tournament, visit
GLVCsports.com/2017volleyball.