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RIPON, Wis. – Grinnell College's women's basketball team is enjoying its best season in decades, and the Pioneers will ride that momentum into this weekend's Midwest Conference Tournament at Ripon College.
 
The Pioneers tied for second place in the league standings with Lawrence University, and those squads will square off against each other in the semifinal round at 7 p.m. Friday. Regular-season champ Ripon College, which lost its only league game of the season to Grinnell, takes on Cornell College in the other semifinal. The winners meet at 3 p.m. Saturday for the title, with the champ advancing to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
 
Grinnell wound up league play at 12-4, its highest finish since the conference switched from divisional play in the early 1990s. The Pioneers are 18-7 overall, their highest win total in 35 seasons, and the squad's seven-game winning streak is also the longest in 35 seasons.
 
Lawrence, which like Grinnell finished the regular season at 12-4 in the MWC and 18-7 overall, narrowly won both meetings against Grinnell in 2024-25. On Dec. 7 in Appleton, Wis., the Vikings eked out a 54-48 victory. Nikki Ware '25 and Adriana Perez '28 scored 12 and 10 points, respectively, for the Pioneers. Perez also grabbed seven rebounds, as did Sara Booher '25. Lawrence's scoring attack was paced by Charlotte Brennan (13 points) and Mallory Meyer (12). The Vikings trailed 22-20 at halftime before outscoring Grinnell 14-10 in the third period and 20-16 in the fourth.
 
The teams squared off in Grinnell on Jan. 11, with the Vikings squeaking past the hosts by a 54-53 score. Skylar Thomas '26 had 10 points for Grinnell, while Booher grabbed 16 rebounds. Sophie Morey and Maggie Culver had 12 and 11 points for Lawrence, respectively.
 
Booher has been a big presence inside for Grinnell, averaging a double-double of 10.8 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. She ranks 14^th in the league in scoring and first in rebounds. Booher is also tops in the league, and among the national leaders, with 3.2 blocks an outing. Ware is the MWC leader in 3-pointers per game with 2.3 and free throw percentage at 88.9 percent. She ranks sixth in assists (2.9) and 10^th in scoring (12.5).
 
Bailey Strovers '27 has been a Swiss Army knife of sorts, ranking among the league's top 10 in 3-pointers (second with 2.1 per game), rebounding (third with 8.8 an outing), free throw percentage (third at 78.8 percent) and scoring (13.3 points per game). Thomas is 11^th in the conference in assists with 2.1 per game.
 
As a team, Grinnell ranks first in opponent field goal percentage (33.6 percent), 3-point percentage (33.6 percent), 3-pointers per game (8.1) and rebounds per game (44.3).
 
The Vikings have no player averaging in double-digit points and are led by Meyer's 9.9 per game average. Culver is 10^th in the MWC in rebounding with 6.5 a game and Meyer ranks fifth in free throw percentage at 74.7 percent.
 
Brennan is second in the conference in assist-turnover ratio (1.3) and fifth in assists with 3.2 per game. Morey is seven in blocked shots per game with 1.0.