Long faces were the norm for the West Georgia Wolves women’s basketball team following its upset loss in the opening round of the GSC tournament last week. Sunday, those long faces turned to smiles.

Thanks to an impressive 24-4 record, West Georgia is headed to the NCAA Division II tournament. The Wolves received an at-large bid Sunday to the South Regional tournament, which begins Friday in Sillers Coliseum on the Delta State University campus in Cleveland, Miss.

The bid for West Georgia is the fifth in the program’s history and first since 1994. It is also the first for the Wolves under GSC East Coach of the Year Craig Roden.

West Georgia was selected as the fifth seed, and will play Nova Southeastern (Fla.) in Friday’s South Regional quarterfinal. UWG is bracketed with the tourney’s top seed, Delta State, and Kentucky State, a stunning selection as the eighth seed in the region.

West Georgia was the top seed from the East Division for the GSC tournament, but a 79-54 loss in the quarterfinals to Arkansas-Monticello knocked the Wolves out after just one game.

Though the Wolves and Sharks have not met this season, they do share two common opponents. Nova Southeastern (24-6) dropped a December home game to a Valdosta State team that West Georgia defeated twice this season. Also, the Sharks dropped two regular season games to Tampa, only to rebound Sunday to defeat the Spartans in the Sunshine State Conference tournament final. UWG and Tampa split a pair of regular season meetings.

The other half of the bracket features the tourney’s second seed, Arkansas Tech, facing Tuskegee in one quarterfinal match-up. The other game is third seed Tampa tangling with number six Valdosta State in a rematch of the game won by Tampa when the two squared off in Carrollton in November.

The winners of Friday’s games will meet in Saturday’s semifinals. The two Saturday winners will play Monday for the South Regional title and a trip to the Division II Elite Eight in Kearney, Neb.