University of Southern Indiana Wins GLVC Commissioner’s Cup
INDIANAPOLIS – For the second time in school history, the University of Southern Indiana has captured the Great Lakes Valley Conference Commissioner’s Cup, it was announced by the league office on Tuesday. The Screaming Eagles’ athletic department, which first won the Commissioner’s Cup following the 2003-04 season, earned the award for the 2017-18 campaign by posting the strongest finish in the league’s seven core sports.
Points are allocated for the Commissioner’s Cup based on the athletic department’s finish in the GLVC’s postseason tournaments in men’s soccer, women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, softball and baseball. Each of the league’s members sponsors these sports at the intercollegiate level.
Southern Indiana, under the direction of athletics director Jon Mark Hall, earned 72 points over the course of the academic year, besting runner-up University of Indianapolis (67) by five points. Bellarmine University (66), Drury University (59) and University of Illinois Springfield (58) rounded out the top five.
Just four points separated places sixth through 11th. Lewis University (53) was sixth overall, while University of Missouri-St. Louis (52) and Truman State University (52) tied for seventh. Rockhurst University (51), Maryville University (50), and McKendree University (49) finished ninth through 11th. Rounding out the conference contingent was Quincy University (41), William Jewell College (37), and Missouri S&T (28). The University of Wisconsin-Parkside was ineligible to earn points this season due to GLVC sanctions.
Although this season marks USI’s first Commissioner’s Cup victory in nearly 15 years, the Screaming Eagles netted 79 points and fell just three markers shy of taking the crown from Rockhurst University last year. USI was eighth in 2015-16 and seventh in 2014-15.
In conference play this year, USI made the GLVC Championship Tournament in six of the seven core sports, highlighted by a league title in softball and runner-up finishes in men’s soccer and women’s basketball. USI competed in the opening round of both the women’s soccer and men’s basketball tournaments, and fell just one win shy of the GLVC title game in baseball.
The Commissioner’s Cup, instituted prior to the 2002-03 season, has had five different institutions stake claim to the award. Prior to Rockhurst earning its first honor last year, UIndy picked up its second Cup in 2015-16 after the first came in 2013-14, which was bookended by other first-time winners Drury (2014-15) and Lewis (2012-13). Following the 2011-12 season, former GLVC member Northern Kentucky took home its fifth-straight and eighth overall Cup over a 10-year span, while SIU Edwardsville, another former member, earned the Commissioner’s Cup in 2007.
The standings for the 2017-18 GLVC Commissioner’s Cup are as follows:
| 1. | Southern Indiana | 79 |
| 2. | Indianapolis | 67 |
| 3. | Bellarmine | 66 |
| 4. | Drury | 59 |
| 5. | Illinois Springfield | 58 |
| 6. | Lewis | 53 |
| 7. | Missouri-St. Louis | 52 |
| Truman State | 52 | |
| 9. | Rockhurst | 51 |
| 10. | Maryville | 50 |
| 11. | McKendree | 49 |
| 12. | Quincy | 41 |
| 13. | William Jewell | 37 |
| 14. | Missouri S&T | 28 |
| 15. | UW-Parkside ^ | 0 |
| ^ Ineligible due to GLVC sanctions |