The Great Plains Athletic Conference will crown another champion in the NAIA Division II National Women’s Basketball Tournament.

What a shocker.

Only one team since 2001, and that was Indiana Wesleyan’s unbeaten 38-0 squad in 2007, has been able to penetrate the seemingly unpenetrable force that is the GPAC. That won’t change again this season, since Morningside will be playing Hastings for the national championship tonight at 7 o’clock at the Tyson Events Center.

Morningside had to fend off a strong challenge from defending champion Northwestern, which I’m already proclaiming the team to beat in 2010, 63-58 in a semifinal on Monday. Hastings, which was ranked No. 2 in the pre-season poll but mustered no better than a fifth-place finish in the GPAC and was ranked No. 18 in the final poll, eliminated No.  Ozarks (Mo.) with a dominating 75-60 performance in the other semifinal.

Northwestern lost all five starters from that championship team and with a starting lineup of two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior, kept improving all season. Randa Hulstein, a junior from Sioux Center and a volleyball All-American who joined the team 11 games into the season, set a single-game tournament record with 26 rebounds. Some players don’t get that many boards in an entire month.

The Red Raiders battled a veteran Morningside team to the wire, but in the end the Mustangs’ experience was the difference. Autumn Bartel, making a strong case for tournament MVP honors, had an outstanding game. The senior from Cherokee scored 18 points to go along with eight steals and made a number of clutch plays down the stretch.

Then, of course, there’s two-time All-American Dani Gass, who didn’t score many points on Monday, but made a shot with around three minutes left in the game just before the shot clock expired that may have been the dagger in Northwestern’s heart.

Hastings, meanwhile, has another of the tournament’s top players in Lindsay Ducey, a 6-1 junior from Omaha Duchesne High School. Ducey, who leads all tournament scorers with 88 points, had to watch last year’s tournament from the bench after suffering an ankle injury, but still earned All-American honors. Morningside will have to contend with Ducey and a veteran surrounding cast, if it is to equal Hastings’ total of three national championships.

By the way, Morningside defeated Hastings 75-59 in the only regular-season meeting between the two schools. Ironically, that loss took place the game after Hastings defeated Ozarks 76-73, on Jan. 12 in Hastings.

In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra, it will be deja vu all over again on Monday in the NAIA Division II National Women’s Basketball Tournament semifinals.

Believe it or not, the same four teams that made the Final Four last year are back again. And, the matchups are identical to last year.

Top-ranked Morningside will play No. 6 Northwestern, the defending national champion, at 6 o’clock Monday at the Tyson Events Center while No. 3 Ozarks meets No. 18 Hastings in the other semi at 8 p.m.

Yes, you counted right. There are three teams from the Great Plains Athletic Conference in the Final Four again. Morningside will be playing Northwestern for the fourth time this season, counting two regular season games and the championship of the GPAC tournament.

The Mustangs looked particularly sharp in disposing of upstart Black Hills State 72-56 on Saturday. All-American Dani Gass was at her best with 18 points, eight rebounds, six assists and six steals. She never ceases to amaze on the basketball court and makes it look so easy.

Ozarks is in the Final Four for the fourth straight year. In fact, the Lady Bobcats have reached the title game the last three seasons. Perhaps it’s their turn to hoist the championship trophy on Tuesday.

But first, they’ll have to beat Hastings, something they didn’t do in a Jan. 12 game at Hastings. The Broncos won that one 76-73 and eliminated GPAC rival Concordia in a quarterfinal on Saturday.

Once again, parking will be at a premium on Monday, so show up early.

And then there were eight.

As in Elite Eight, the quarterfinalists for the 2009 NAIA Division II National Women’s Basketball Tournament. And, to noone’s surprise, the final eight includes four schools from the Great Plains Athletic Conference.

That includes top-ranked Morningside, which moved to 35-0 and tied a school single-season wins record with a 71-57 second-round win over Bethel, Ind. on Friday. Northwestern, Hastings and Concordia also reached Saturday at the Tyson Events Center.

Hastings pulled the biggest shocker, upending previously unbeaten and second-ranked Shawnee State 77-69 in overtime. The Broncos, who have won three national titles in the last eight years, will play GPAC rival Concordia in the first quarterfinal today at 1 p.m. Concordia rode Whitney Stichka’s 33 points to an exciting 74-73 win over Cornerstone when Stichka drove around the defense and scored in the final seconds.

Northwestern, after dispatching of Sterling, Kan., 72-55 will take on fourth-ranked Davenport (Mich.) at 6 o’clock. No. 3 Ozarks (Mo.) plays Dickinson State at 3 o’clock while Morningside goes against either Black Hills State or Kansas Wesleyan (they were playing late into the night Friday) in the 8 p.m. finale.

So, through two rounds the only real surprises were the losses by Shawnee State, a No. 1 seed, and Cornerstone, which drew one of the No. 2 seeds.

Morningside still looks like the team to beat and, if both the Mustangs and Northwestern win today, it will create a Monday night semifinal matchup at 6 o’clock. But, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Davenport plays defense a lot like Morningside and will be a tough draw for Northwestern, although the Red Raiders looked very impressive Friday night.

For what it’s worth, my prediction is a Morningside-Northwestern semi and an Ozarks-Hastings matchup in the other Final Four game. Then, Morningside will break Ozarks’ heart again, handing the Lady Bobcats their fourth straight loss in a championship game.

A reminder, though. I’m seldom right at predictions, so don’t etch this in stone.

Friday’s session was a good one, despite the fact that I had to park three blocks away from the Tyson Center. It may be that way again the next couple of days.

The four No. 1 seeds in the NAIA Division II National Women’s Basketball Tournament have lived up to their lofty billings with first-round victories. So have all the No. 2 seeds and also the No. 3 seeds.

In other words, the folks who decided who should be seeded where look like geniuses, since there were really no upsets in the opening round at Tyson Events Center.

Ozarks (Mo.), which has made it to the championship game each of the last three seasons but lost each time, beat King (Tenn.) 77-67, but Coach George Wilson had his regulars off the floor early in that game. Davenport (Mich.), a team that graduated one of the more exciting players this tournament has seen, Jeanette Woodberry, looks like it’s poised to make a run to the Final Four with a rotation that includes four freshmen and four sophomores among its top nine players.

If anybody plays defense as intense as Morningside, it’s Davenport. Plus, the Panthers launched an incredible 856 three-point shots this season, making 271. Davenport, the other No. 1 seed, cruised to an 88-62 win over Indiana University Southeast.

The No. 2 seeds advancing to the second round were Kansas Wesleyan, Northwestern, Dickinson State and Cornerstone. Northwestern, the defending national champion, beat a Covenant, Ga. team coached by a very interesting individual in Roy Heintz. Roy is in his seventh season at Covenant, but before that, was an assistant coach at Florida State, the team chaplain for the NBA Orlando Magic and a color commentator for a number of different professional teams for FOX Sports Net. And, to top it off, he’s now in to standup comedy and is a motivational speaker. Look for more about him in an upcoming column by The Journal’s Tim Gallagher.

One of the more interesting matchups in the second round today is No. 2 Shawnee State, the only other unbeaten in the field beside top-ranked Morningside, taking on No. 18 Hastings at 10:15 this morning. No. 7 Cornerstone also has a tough draw in eighth-ranked Concordia, another of the five Great Plains Athletic Conference representatives. Mount Marty, by the way, was the first and only GPAC team to lose thus far, falling to Indiana Wesleyan, the 2007 champion.

Indiana Wesleyan went through the 2007 campaign with a 38-0 record, which Morningside could do with four more victories and this year’s national title. Hastings has won three national titles in the last eight years while Northwestern and Morningside have two each.

The crowds have been great the first two days, but if you’re planning on finding a place to park today, you better get there early. Morningside has a 5:15 game against Bethel while Northwestern plays Sterling at 7 o’clock. Sterling, by the way, rang up 93 points against Holy Names, Calif., which was the highest point total of any team in the first round.

Do you think there will be an empty seat in the house if a potential quarterfinal matchup between Morningside and Northwestern takes place? That game would be at 8 o’clock Saturday night.

Stay tuned.

There were really no surprises on the opening day of the 2009 NAIA Division II National Women’s Basketball Tournament Wednesday at the Tyson Events Center.

Two of the four No. 1 seeds were in action, including top-ranked Morningside, which strolled to an 83-41 victory over an overmatched Maine-Fort Kent squad. The Mustangs put this one away early and Coach Jamie Sale was able to give his regulars plenty of rest, which is good considering they’ll have to win four games in the next five days to capture the national championship.

Second-ranked Shawnee State (Ohio), the only other unbeaten team in the field, raised its record to 31-0 with a 74-58 win over Florida Memorial. The other two No. 1 seeds, Ozarks (Mo.) and Davenport (Mich.) are in action today.

In matchups between Nos. 4 and 5 seeds, which are always very unpredictable, No. 4 Bethel (Ind.) edged No. 5 Cedarville (Ohio) 67-63 and No. 5 Hastings beat No. 4 College of Idaho 76-64, so that was a wash. Bethel plays Morningside in the second round Friday at 5:15.

Three of the five teams from the Great Plains Athletic Conference, which has won seven of the last eight national titles, were winners on Wednesday. Concordia downed Taylor (Ind.) 72-53 and takes on Cornerstone (Mich.), one of the No. 2 seeds, on Friday.

Eight more first-round games are on tap today and eight second-round games on Friday. Then, things get interesting with four quarterfinal games on Saturday.

Eight nights from tonight, we’ll know who wins the conference tournament crowns for the Great Plains Athletics Conference basketball teams. The men’s and women’s teams play the same four days to determine the tournament champion — Feb. 24, Feb. 26, Feb. 28 and March 3. A host of city teams will play major roles as they seek to use top seedings to wrest the titles.

For the women, Morningside finished the regular season 30-0 overall and 18-0 in the conference. They’ll get a first-round bye, as will No. 2 seed Northwestern College. Briar Cliff (13-17, 6-12) plays at No. 7 seed Doane tomorrow and that winner plays at Orange City vs. Northwestern in the next round. As long as they keep winning, the Morningside Mustang women and Northwestern will host through the semi-final round on Feb. 28.

In the men’s tournament, Morningside (23-6, 15-3) also gets the No. 1 seed , while Briar Cliff’s hot three-point-heavy team (23-6, 14-4) is the No. 3 seed. The Northwestern Red Raiders (16-12, 11-7) are seeded fourth,  which means the semis could match Northwestern and Morningside, while an all-city final with Morningside taking on Briar Cliff is a possibility.

Of course, the women’s teams making the national tournament will be coming to play here in Sioux City at the Tyson Events Center March 11-17. As per usual, a strong number of GPAC teams could make the field with at-large nods. How well do you think Morningside, which closed out a first-ever undefeated season and owns the No. 1 NAIA Division II national ranking, will fare?

There’s no telling if Indiana Wesleyan can come back to the Tyson Events Center this winter and win another NAIA Division II women’s basketball championship.

The only sure thing is that Wesleyan won’t match last year’s unprecedented 38-0 finish.

After winning its first 18 games this winter to break the all-time NAIA winning streak record, Wesleyan’s string of 56 consecutive victories came to an end last Saturday in a 52-49 loss to Bethel College, another highly regarded Indiana team.

Brittany Cook’s three-pointer with 2.6 seconds remaining snapped a 49-49 tie and gave Bethel the historic road win in Marion, Ind.

Indiana Wesleyan, falling to 18-1, was ranked No. 5 in last week’s NAIA Division II poll while Bethel, now 16-2, was rated No. 7.

Both teams are all but certain of being back in the Sioux City tournament field March 12-18.