The University of Missouri–St. Louis women’s basketball team has moved up to No. 7 in this week’s NCAA Midwest Regional Rankings.

The UMSL Tritons, ranked No. 9 in last week’s initial rankings, are one of six Great Lakes Valley Conference programs in the top-10, highlighted by the top four in Drury, Lewis, Quincy and Indianapolis. Southern Indiana is No. 9, while four GLIAC schools represent the other spots, including Wayne State-Mich. (No. 5), Northern Michigan (No. 6), Michigan Tech (No. 8) and Ashland (No. 10).

The top eight teams in each of the country’s eight regions will make up the NCAA Division II basketball tournament, when that field of 64 is announced next month. The conference tournament champions from both the GLVC and the GLIAC receive automatic berths, with six at-large berths then made available for the final spots in the Midwest region. The third conference that comprises the Midwest – the Great Midwest Athletic Conference – is not eligible for an automatic bid in 2014.

UMSL is in search of its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1999-2000, and just the second-ever in program history.

The third and final regional poll prior to NCAA selections will be released March 5.

UMSL (19-6) will close out the regular season on Thursday at Maryville before GLVC Tournament play begins on Sunday.