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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The HCAC women's basketball tournament will get underway Tuesday night with opening round action from Hanover College and Mount St. Joseph University. The six-team tournament will decide who receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.  The event will conclude with the semifinals and championship contests at Transylvania University, Friday and Saturday.

The Transylvania Pioneers (23-2, 17-1 HCAC) have won 18-straight contests and heads into the tournament ranked at No. 20 in this week's D3hoops.com Top 25 National poll after claiming its second HCAC regular season title in five years. 

The Pioneers posted a 9-1 record against the five other schools involved in the conference tournament. Rose-Hulman (19-6, 16-2 HCAC) went 8-2 against the field, while Hanover (18-7, 14-4 HCAC) finished 6-4. Mount St. Joseph (14-11, 9-9 HCAC) finished 3-7, while Defiance (9-16, 8-10 HCAC) and Bluffton (9-16, 7-11 HCAC) each earned a 2-8 mark against the tourney teams.

Top seed Transylvania will be searching for the school's third tournament championship this weekend. The Pioneers will take on the winner of Mount St. Joseph and Defiance on Friday evening in the HCAC semifinals. Transylvania posted a sweep of the Lions and Yellow Jackets during the regular season.

The No. 4 seed Lions will look to move into the semifinals with a win over No. 5 Defiance Tuesday night in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mount St. Joseph and the Yellow Jackets earned a split during the regular season. Heading into Tuesday's matchup, the Lions have won five out of the last 10 matchups, while Defiance has won six out of the last 10. Mount St. Joseph and Defiance will tip at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night at Mount St. Joseph's Harrington Center.

The Fightin' Engineers earned the No. 2 seed after finishing 16-2 in conference play and will play the winner of Hanover and Bluffton in the second semifinal game at Transylvania on Friday. The Fightin' Engineers have won six-straight games heading into the postseason, and swept the Beavers while splitting with the Panthers during their meetings this season. 

Hanover claimed the No. 3 seed and will play No. 6 Bluffton at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday night at Hanover College's Collier Arena. The Panthers swept the Beavers during their regular season matchups, and Hanover has won five games straight leading into the quarterfinal. The winner of Tuesday night's game will advance to the semifinals to face Transylvania at the Beck Center in Lexington, Ky. Friday evening.

The HCAC tournament championship game will take place at 5 p.m. Saturday at Transylvania's Beck Center in Lexington, Ky.

Admission to the HCAC Tournament is available for $8 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and non-HCAC affiliated students. Children 11 and under and HCAC students, faculty and staff are admitted free with valid campus identification.

 

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