This Week: Notre Dame College women's basketball enters the Mountain East Conference Tournament as a No. 2 seed. They will take on seventh seed Wheeling University on March 5, at 12 p.m.

Looking Ahead: If the Falcons win, they will play the winner of the matchup between No. 6 seed Fairmont State and No. 3 seed University of Charleston in the semifinal on March 7, at 2:15 p.m.

Records: Notre Dame has a record of 24-4 and the Falcons put together a conference record of 18-4 in the regular season. Wheeling has a record of 11-18 with a 9-13 conference record.

Coaches Corner: Lauren Macer is in her third season as head coach with a record of 62-27 (47-19). Mike Llanas is in his second season as head coach at Wheeling. He has a record of 14-42, overall, and an 11-33 MEC record.

Rankings: Neither of these teams are ranked in the WBCA poll. Notre Dame is currently fifth in the Atlantic Region Rankings.

Series History: NDC swept their season series with Wheeling and now hold an all-time record of 10-5 against the Cardinals.

Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame had their most successful regular season in program history. They broke the record for most wins (24), Mountain East Conference wins (18), road wins (12) and the team was ranked in the WBCA Coaches Poll Top-25 for the first time. Head Coach Lauren Macer won MEC Coach of the Year after leading the team to those numbers. This program is familiar with deep runs in the MEC Tournament. Since the Falcons joined the MEC before the 2013-14 season, the women's team has reached the Finals, twice. The seniors on this season's team and a couple of the juniors were on the 2017-18 team that won 23 games and 17 conference games. The Falcons won two games in the MEC Tournament and finished runner-up that season. The team ranks 14th in NCAA Division II in scoring offense (79.3) and 20th in turnover margin (5.89). The Falcons rank 2nd in the MEC in scoring defense, allowing just 70.5 points per game, they also 3rd in the MEC in blocked shots per game (3.43), 3rd in steals (10.86) and 4th in assist average (15.11). Seina Adachi earned All-MEC First Team for the third time. She is second in program history in career points (1,814) and first in field goals made (671). This season, Adachi is 11th in DII in free throw percentage (89%), ranks ninth in the MEC with 17.9 points per game and is tied for first in the conference with 70 steals. In NDC's 2018 tournament run, Adachi averaged 17.3 points and 2.7 steals. Jada Marone took All-MEC Second Team after averaging 16.1 points, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals. Jessie Stout took Honorable Mention after averaging 8.9 points, ranking 13th in the conference in rebounding, with 7.3 per contest and finishing the season ninth in the MEC with 0.79 blocked shots per game.
 
Noting the Cardinals: Wheeling entered the tournament after finishing the regular season with a 1-5 record over their final six games. Defense has been a strong suit for the team. They are fifth in the MEC in both points allowed (76.1) and field goal percentage defense (41.7-percent). The Cardinals are tied with the Falcons for third in the league with 3.43 blocked shots per game. Lilly Ritz was named All-MEC First Team after the season. She ranks 13th in NCAA Division II with 21.4 points and leads the country with 15.5 rebounds per game. She also ranks second in the MEC with 2.07 blocked shots per game, and is second with 2.5 steals per game. Ritz posted 23 double doubles, which is the third most in Division II, and is 10th in Division II with a field goal percentage of 59.9 percent. Khira Burton ranks 20th in the conference with 15 points per game and she ranks eighth with 3.3 assists per game.