SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The No. 9-ranked Indiana Tech Women's Basketball team marches on in postseason play as they make a trip west to Sioux City, Iowa for the second straight year in the NAIA Division II National Championship to take on sixth-seeded Bryan College in the first game of the tournament Wednesday morning.
 
Last Time Out: The Warriors fell to Cornerstone, 72-69, in the championship game of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Tournament last Tuesday, Feb. 27, at the Schaefer Center. The top-seeded Warriors were upended by the Golden Eagles for the second time this season in the loss.
 
Following the Warriors: Links to live stats and video, provided by the NAIA Network, can be found at www.IndianaTechWarriors.com. You can also follow along on Twitter at @INTechWBB and @INTechWarriors.
 
Head Coach Jessie Biggs: Now in her sixth year as the head women's basketball coach at Indiana Tech, head coach Jessie Biggs has amassed an overall record of 119-73 and a 82-41 mark in WHAC play. She was named the WHAC Coach of the Year in 2018 after guiding the Orange and Black to their first-ever regular season WHAC championship, her second year in a row winning the conference honor. Prior to coming to Tech, Biggs spent two seasons as the Graduate Assistant Coach at Western Illinois and was an Assistant Coach for three seasons at Coe College, while the Iowa native was a standout player at the University of Northern Iowa, where she was garnered Second-Team All-MVC honors as a senior.
 
Series Notes: This is the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
 
Scouting the Opposition: The Lions are 25-9 this season and are making the second straight appearance in Sioux City after winning the Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament for the second consecutive season and shared the regular season championship with Reinhardt. Bryan will be led by AAC Freshman of the Year and All-Conference 1st Team member Karli Combs, and two other 1st Team honorees in Amber Levi and Deandra Luna. Combs, a dominating sharpshooter, was the Lion's leading scorer this season, averaging 13.9 points per game and her deadly precision from deep ranks her nationally at 6th in total three-pointers made (106), 9th in three-point percentage (46.1), and 9th in three-pointers made per game (3.1). Levi averages 13.2 points per game while Luna averages over five assists per game.
 
Poll Thoughts: The Warriors maintained their number nine spot in the final regular season edition of the Coaches' Top 25 Poll and were ranked in every poll this year.
 
Historic Season: Tech captured its first-ever regular season WHAC championship on Valentine's Day with a win over Lawrence Tech, marking the first time since the mid-1990's when the Warriors went to four consecutive NAIA DII National Championships that a team has finished atop the conference standings.
 
More History: Tech's win against Concordia in the WHAC Tournament Semifinals gave them win number 29 on the season and set a new mark for the most in program history. The 1991-92 team won 28 games and finished with a 28-3 record and won the NAIA District 21 Title, sparking a four-year run of appearances in the NAIA Division II National Championship.
 
Tournament History: The Warriors are making their sixth appearance to the NAIA DII National Championship and hold a 3-5 record all-time in the tournament. The team's last appearance came at the 2017 event while the Orange and Black made their other four appearances from 1992-95.
 
WHAC Awards: The Orange and Black had several individuals honored by the conference last week with the release of its regular season honors. Head coach Jessie Biggs repeated as Coach of the Year while Haley Cook was tabbed as the Player of the Year and was joined on the All-Conference First-Team by Keanna Gary. Kendall Knapke earned a spot on the All-Conference Second-Team.
 
Fallen Warrior: Senior guard Haley Cook has been most of the most prolific players in program history since stepping onto the court as a sophomore transfer in the fall of 2015, but has experience horrible luck when it comes to the national championship. In the WHAC Tournament Semifinal win over Concordia, Cook suffered a torn ACL, and while she intends to play in the tournament, she will have ended her career with a healthy appearance in the national tournament, as she suffered a torn UCL as a junior in the WHAC Tournament semifinal and played at less than 100% in the 2017 event.
 
Double-Double Machine: Keanna Gary continues to be one of the best low-post players in the nation as she has recorded 21 double-doubles on the season, the most in the NAIA.
 
Stepping Up to the Task: Replacing Cook in the lineup will be sophomore DeAnn Kauffman, who comes into the tournament averaging 10.6 points per game, but made a good first impression in her first career start in the WHAC Tournament Championship as she scored 24 points, just two off her career-high.