The Lady Cougars (23-18), who are the No. 5 seed in the double elimination event, won their final two conference games at defending American Mideast Conference South Division champion Urbana University just to qualify for the tournament. MVNU is led on the mound by the one-two punch of senior right-hander Kristin Eyerman (12-6, 2.66 ERA) and junior right-hander Candace White (11-11, 2.06 ERA). Offensively, freshman second baseman Kristin Kurelic (.378, 14 stolen bases), sophomore outfielder Leslie Banichar (.353, 30 RBI, 18 stolen bases), and sophomore designated player Staci Graham (.311, 27 RBI) fuel the hitting attack, while sophomore shortstop Tasha Konkle (only six errors in 155 fielding chances) and sophomore catcher Caitlin Murphy, who has thrown out 21 of the 42 base runners who tried to steal, anchor a defense that is fielding at a .957 clip.

The Lady Cougars will take on Ohio Dominican (21-28) in the first round. MVNU dropped all four games to the Lady Panthers during the regular season as the Lady Cougars lost each game by one run. Ohio Dominican earned a share of its seventh straight conference title with a 14-6 AMC South Division mark.

The winner of the game between MVNU and Ohio Dominican will square off with top seed and host Walsh (30-10), who received votes in the latest NAIA poll and won the AMC North Division title. That winner’s bracket game would take place at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the loser of the game between MVNU and Ohio Dominican would play again in the loser’s bracket at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday.

Other first round match-ups on Wednesday feature No. 2 seed University of Rio Grande (25-15) versus No. 7 seed Saint Joseph (Maine) College (13-5) at 10:00 a.m. and No. 3 seed Notre Dame College (29-11) versus No. 6 Point Park (Pa.) University (16-18) at 12:30 p.m. The tournament will continue on Thursday and Friday with the tournament winner receiving an automatic berth into the NAIA National Tournament in Decatur, Ala.