Though Coal City and Seneca have lost a combined three games in the Interstate Eight Conference, neither cracked the top two in seeding for the conference tournament.

Both teams did receive first-round byes for the tournament, which begins Thursday. The Lady Coalers, who will take an overall record of 15-3 and an I-8 mark of 6-1 into the event, are seeded third. The defending champion Lady Irish are the No. 4 seed despite a 10-11 overall record. Seneca is 6-2 in conference play.

Seneca enters the tournament off of a loss, but it was not necessarily a discouraging one. On Monday, the Lady Irish fell 44-41 to Lisle, which is the top seed in the tournament and is 8-0 in conference play.