ROLLA, Mo. – For the first time in six seasons, Missouri S&T's softball team will get the opportunity to compete in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament as the Miners will open play in the event Thursday in East Peoria, Ill.

The Miners, who earned the seventh seed based on their 13-13 record in conference play, will face second-seeded Lewis in their opening round contest at 3 p.m. on Thursday at the EastSide Centre Softball Complex.  S&T will play again on Friday against either Drury or Truman State – the time and opponent will be determined based on Thursday's results – and a win on either day will allow the Miners to play on Saturday in the double elimination event.  The championship game is scheduled to take place on Sunday.

S&T comes into the tournament at 23-31 overall after dropping three of its four games in the final weekend of conference play, splitting a doubleheader with Upper Iowa and losing both halves of Sunday's twinbill with Truman State.

Sydney Anderson (Elkhart, IA/North Polk) leads the Miners in several offensive categories coming into Thursday's game, where she ranks eighth in the GLVC in hitting with a .374 average and leads the conference with 19 doubles, a mark that ranks 13^th in NCAA Division II.  Anderson has also driven in a team-leading 33 runs, while Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) owns a .344 mark at the plate and has driven in 23 runs.
 
Trista Grobe (DeSoto, MO/DeSoto) comes into the tournament with a .269 batting average and a team-leading four home runs, while Ty Neal (Enid, OK/Kremlin-Hilldale) is hitting .253.

In the circle, Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) has the team's top earned run average in the circle of 3.36 and has fanned 128 hitters in 143 2/3 innings, while Wooldridge – who leads the staff with 13 wins and 146 strikeouts in 139 1/3 innings – has a 3.87 ERA and has not allowed an earned run in her last three appearances.
 
ABOUT THE OPPONENT: Lewis earned the second seed for the GLVC Tournament based on its 21-5 record in conference play and enters Thursday's game with S&T at 36-13 overall.  The Flyers were ranked fourth in the NCAA Midwest Region in last week's rankings and have won seven of their last eight games, allowing just four runs in those seven wins.

Delaney Garden leads the Flyers both at the plate and in the circle, owning a .382 batting average – seventh-best in the GLVC – with 23 runs batted in.  Gabi Nilles is hitting .346 with 25 runs batted in, while Jalyn Powell is hitting .327 with seven home runs and 34 runs batted in.  Anna Frafjord is the Flyers' home run leader with eight on the season.

Garden has a 17-6 record and 1.25 earned run average in the circle – second only to Indianapolis' Kenzee Smith's 0.23 ERA -- and her 181 strikeouts rank third in the conference through play on Sunday.  Allie Wondrasek has a 14-3 record and 1.37 ERA alongside Garden.

The Miners and Flyers split their GLVC doubleheader on April 14 in Romeoville, Ill., with the Flyers winning the first game 5-4 on Powell's walk-off homer in the bottom of the seventh after S&T had tied the game in the top half of the inning.  S&T took the nightcap 1-0 when Wooldridge fired a one-hit shutout.