May 10, 2009
NCAA Website SEATTLE - The Washington softball team has earned the No. 3 overall seed in the 64-team NCAA Division I Softball Tournament, as announced by the NCAA Selection Committee on Sunday night. The Huskies, who finished with a 41-10 overall record and placed second the Pac-10 conference with a 14-7 record, will travel to Amherst, Mass., and will be the highest team in the regional, which also features Cornell, Sacred Heart and host-school Massachusetts. UW's opening game will be against Sacred Heart of Fairfield, Conn., on Friday. Sacred Heart is making its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. UW, which is making its 16th consecutive trip to the postseason, is one of six Pac-10 teams to make the 64-team tournament along with Arizona, Arizona State, California, Stanford and UCLA. The Bruins own the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament behind No. 1 Florida. Friday's game between Washington and Sacred Heart (25-26) is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET. If UW should win, they would face the winner between Cornell (42-11) and Massachusetts (38-8) in the double-elimination tournament. The winner of Sunday's championship game will advance to the Super Regionals which take place the weekend of May 22-24. The Pioneers won the Northeast Conference Championship on Saturday to earn their first trip to postseason play. Cornell won the Ivy League title while UMass qualified by winning the Atlantic-10. Thirty conferences were awarded automatic qualification, and the remaining 34 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and will play at campus sites this weekend. Team pairings were determined by geographical proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during regional competition, when possible. The SEC led all conferences with nine teams in the championship, while the Big 12 placed seven and the Big Ten and the Pacific-10 each placed six. California State University, Fresno, remains the only team to be selected to all 28 championships. Seven teams are making their initial appearances in the tournament: Bradley University, James Madison University, the University of Kentucky, North Dakota State University, Radford University, Sacred Heart University and the University of Tennessee at Martin. The Huskies were ranked No. 4 in the most recent NFCA Division I rankings. They have defeated 19 of the 64 teams of the tournament this season, including 11 of the 16 seeded teams. UW is one of three teams to defeat top-seeded Florida this season, edging the Gators 1-0 in nine innings back in late February. DATES/SITES/PAIRINGS (*Indicates host institution)
Gainesville Regional - May 15-17 at Gainesville, Florida
Tallahassee Regional - May 15-17 at Tallahassee, Florida
Louisville Regional - May 15-17 at Louisville, Kentucky
Palo Alto Regional - May 15-17 at Palo Alto, California
Ann Arbor Regional - May 15-17 at Ann Arbor, Michigan
Waco Regional - May 15-17 at Waco, Texas
Knoxville Regional - May 15-17 at Knoxville, Tennessee
Tuscaloosa Regional - May 15-17 at Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Amherst Regional - May 15-17
Atlanta Regional - May 15-17
Columbus Regional - May 14-16
Chapel Hill Regional - May 14-16
Norman Regional - May 15-17
Tempe Regional - May 15-17
Columbia Regional - May 15-17
Los Angeles Regional - May 15-17 |
