Thursday marks the NAIA postseason debut for several members of the Grand View Lady Vikings Women’s Basketball team, including a 2015 West Central Valley graduate. Bailee Arnburg is nearing the end of her junior season for the Lady Vikings squad, starting all 33 games for the team this winter. She averaged 10.8 points and four rebounds during the regular season, tallying a team-best 89 assists. Arnburg’s efforts helped Grand View qualify for their first NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship tournament in program history.

Arnburg spoke via phone to Raccoon Valley Radio Sunday afternoon as the Grand View Women’s basketball team was driving to Billings, Montana for this weeks NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship tournament. She says the season so far has been awesome. “We had a little bit of a rough start, but after Christmas break, we knew what we had to do if we wanted to reach our goal, which was the national tournament,” Arnburg said, “We talked about it a lot as a team, and we kept winning, and we eventually landed there.”

Grand View held a 4-6 overall record after a December 2 loss to Central Methodist. The next 20 games saw the Lady Vikings post a record of 17-3, and eventually become one of 17 at-large entries into the NAIA tournament. Grand View will debut in the national championship against No. 1-seeded Shawnee State (Ohio), on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 7:15 central standard time from the Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings, Mont.