Complete NCAA Region Rankings

Ending the regular season on a 19-game winning streak and capturing the 2017 GLIAC regular season championship bumped Grand Valley State up three spots in this week's NCAA Midwest Region softball rankings, released on Wednesday afternoon (May 3). The Lakers are sixth in this week's rankings, as the top-eight teams will advance to next weekend's NCAA Tournament.

After only two teams flipped places in last week's rankings from the previous week, there was much more shakeup this week, especially in the middle of the Midwest Region. While Southern Indiana (first) and Missouri-St. Louis (second) stayed put, spots three through 10 are all different. GVSU's jump from ninth last week to sixth this week shook things up, as most of the remaining teams either played just one doubleheader or were completely rained out last week.

The GLIAC has just three teams in the 10-team rankings, with Wayne State and Saginaw Valley State at third and fourth, respectively, and the defending Midwest Region champion Lakers in sixth place. Along with the seven teams out of the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), there will be at least one team from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) automatically invited to the NCAA Tournament, which will be announced on Monday morning (May 8) at 10:00 a.m. on NCAA.com.

Here are the third NCAA Midwest Region softball rankings:

Ranking/Team (In-Region Record/Overall Record)
1. Southern Indiana (31-8, 40-10)
2. Missouri-St. Louis (30-10, 35-13)
3. Wayne State (22-8, 36-12)
4. Saginaw Valley State (27-13, 27-14)
5. Indianapolis (25-15, 33-19)
6. Grand Valley State (27-13, 27-15)
7. Rockhurst (30-19, 30-20)
8. Truman State (32-15, 35-19)
9. McKendree (25-17, 30-19)
10. Illinois-Springfield (30-21, 31-21)

Last week, Grand Valley State continued its winning ways by sweeping Ferris State (3-1, 4-1) and at #22 Saginaw Valley State (5-3, 7-6) to clinch the regular season championship. The latter pair of victories was crucial not only to winning the GLIAC title, but helped the Lakers moved up in the regional rankings, as SVSU was third in the region last week. Overall, GVSU is 31-15 on the year and finished the regular season at 17-5 in conference play and 14-0 at home. In the month of April, the Lakers went 20-2.

Top-seeded Grand Valley State heads to Findlay, Ohio for the 2017 GLIAC Tournament and for the second year in a row and third time in five seasons, the Lakers will face Findlay on its home field in the opening round. GVSU won 3-0 over the Oilers in the 2013 opening game, but lost 5-0 in last year's tournament opener. The Lakers and Findlay are scheduled for a 10:00 a.m. first pitch, although inclement weather is a possibility throughout the weekend. With clear weather, GVSU will play twice on Friday - regardless of the Findlay result - and will take on either Ohio Dominican or Ashland on Friday afternoon.

The NCAA Midwest Region Tournament is split into two separate sub-regionals, with the 1, 4, 5, and 8 seeds competing at one site and the other regional featuring the 2, 3, 6, and 7 seeds. Both winners of those sub-regionals play the following weekend in the Midwest Super Regional, with the winner of that three-game series advancing to the Division II College World Series in Salem, Va.

Grand Valley State has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last six seasons (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) and has made 14 overall appearances in the NCAA postseason.