Iowa Wesleyan will be wearing the targets on its back of favorites in the MCC Women's Basketball Tournament, which begins Monday and continues later this week at campus sites.

The Tigers will be looking for their fourth MCC tourney title in five years when opening tourney play on Thursday hosting one of four quarterfinal games. IWC will host the winner of Monday's game between #8 seed Viterbo and #9 Ashford, the lone first round game that kicks off the tourney.

Iowa Wesleyan will be a favorite to win the title and the automatic bid to the NAIA Division II National Championships again after finishing 15-1 in the regular season in conference play. IWC won the regular season championship by two games over second-place Grand View and will have homecourt advantage throughout the tourney. The Tigers have won 35 of their last 36 games at home, and come into the postseason having won 20 of their last 21 games.

A strong pack looking to knock off IWC will include a number of teams who had strong regular seasons in and out of conference play. Second-seeded Grand View and #4 seed St. Ambrose both spent much of the season ranked in the NAIA Division II national polls, while #3 seed Mount Mercy has lingered just outside the national polls and came on after a slow start. The Mustangs also were the lone team to beat Wesleyan in conference play.

Quarterfinal matchups will include Grand View hosting #7 Clarke, Mount Mercy facing #6 Waldorf, and St. Ambrose playing host to #5 William Penn. Grand View has won 13 of its last 15 games, while SAU won four straight games to close the regular season. Mount Mercy and St. Ambrose both finished 11-5 in the MCC but the Mustangs won a tiebreaker for the #3 seed. Mount Mercy also will be looking to close the deal in the tourney after losing in the championship game to Iowa Wesleyan last year, 60-53.

Tournament semifinals will be played on Saturday, with the championship game on Monday, March 1. All games will be played at the home sites of higher seeded teams.

MCC Women's Basketball Tournament Bracket