EAST PEORIA, Ill.  – The sixth-seeded UIndy softball team opened the 2025 GLVC Championship Tournament on the right foot Wednesday. For the second straight season, the Greyhounds downed Maryville in the first round, handing the No. 3-seeded Saints a 4-2 defeat.

UIndy remains in the winners' bracket to face seventh-seeded Missouri S&T tomorrow afternoon in a rematch of last year's conference championship final. First pitch is currently scheduled for 3 p.m. ET, 2 p.m. local.

The eight-team, double-elimination tournament is being held at EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill., April 30-May 3.

INS & OUTS
Battling rainy conditions the majority of the game, the Hounds came out on top thanks to a solid outing from starting pitcher Cheyenne Eads and some timely hitting from the lineup. Eads spun a two-hitter in her conference tourney debut, while fellow-freshman Maya Rodriguez amassed three RBIs on the day.

A two-run second gave the Hounds the early lead. After Eads was hit by a pitch and Sydney Oliver singled to left, Rodriguez found the gap with a clutch two-out double for the game's first runs.
 

The Hounds strike first with a 2??-run double from Maya Rodriguez!! ??#GLVCsb x #ONEHOUND pic.twitter.com/ZG9WJAos4J

— UIndy Softball (@UIndySoftball) April 30, 2025

The Saints would tie it in the bottom of the third inning, but single tallies in the sixth and seventh from UIndy proved to be the difference. Rodriguez would once again deliver a two-out ribbie, scoring Jocelyn Calvin with the go-ahead run in the sixth. Later, Josie Jager plated Brooklyn Willis with an RBI single to cap the scoring.

Eads went on to strikeout five in the complete-game effort. She moved to 20-10 on the year, becoming just the fourth UIndy freshman pitcher to reach the 20-win plateau.

Meanwhile, Cara Cooper hit her 20th double of the season—one shy of tying the program's single-season record set in 2012 by Casey Williamson.

Click/tap here to catch postgame thoughts from Eads, Rodriguez and Head Coach Melissa Forst.