North Manchester, Ind. – The Transylvania women's basketball team seeks to defend its conference tournament crowns on Wednesday, March 3 at Manchester University in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference quarterfinals.

The modified 2021 HCAC Tournament consists of all 10 teams participating and being seeded according to a blind draw prior to the tournament. The Pioneers received the No. 5 seed and thus will visit the No. 4 seed Manchester University Spartans at Stauffer-Wolfe Arena for a 4:00 p.m. tip-off on Wednesday.

The winner of the Manchester-Transy matchup will advance to face the winner of No. 1 seed Bluffton and No. 8 seed Anderson for a semifinal matchup on either March 6 or March 7 at the location of the highest remaining seed.

Wednesday's tournament matchup between Manchester and Transylvania serves as the first meeting of the season between the two teams; the HCAC conducted a modified regular season in which teams were scheduled to play only six of 10 conference opponents in home-and-home series.

The Pioneers enter the 2021 HCAC Tournament as the two-time defending champions in tournament play. As last year's pure No. 1 seed, Transylvania defeated Hanover 91-61 in the HCAC Championship to clinch its second consecutive NCAA Tournament bid. The Pioneers boast an 11-6 record in 2020-21 and a 9-3 record against HCAC opponents this season.

Transylvania leads the HCAC in scoring at 67.5 points per game while sophomore guard Madison Kellione leads the team in scoring at 11.3 ppg. Junior Grace Shope is the team rebounding leader at 5.5 rpg and also leads the team in steals with 47 thefts on the season.

Wednesday's tournament game will be streamed by Manchester Athletics.

Under seventh-year head coach Juli Fulks, the Pioneers have won the conference tournament championship twice and have made four consecutive appearances in the conference championship game.

For more on Transylvania women's basketball, follow @TUWBX on Twitter