Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern Earns Fourth Overall Seed for NCAA Tournament
5/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
2006 NCAA Tournament Bracket in PDF Format
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May 14, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern is the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament -- its best seed ever -- and will host an NCAA Regional at Sharon J. Drysdale Field for the first time in the current tourney format after posting a 42-12 overall record and winning its first Big Ten title since 1987.
The Wildcats will open play against Southern Illinois, while Notre Dame and UC Santa Barbara round out the four-team region. The four teams will play a double-elimination tournament, with the winner advancing to a best two-out-of-three super regional for the right to go to the Women's College World Series.
The bid is Northwestern's ninth in program history and its fourth in a row. The Wildcats received a top seed for the second time in program history since the field expanded to 64 teams, and for the second year in a row after being a No. 9 seed in 2005.
Northwestern played 11 games against the top 12 seeds in this year's field, winning four times including once at No. 1 UCLA. The Wildcats played 20 of the teams in the field, compiling a 20-12 record in 32 games against NCAA qualifiers. That means almost 60 percent of Northwestern's games in 2006 were against teams in the NCAA Tournament, as were all of NU's 12 losses this season.
Northwestern won its first Big Ten title in 20 years this season, and became the first school to host the conference tournament other than Michigan or Iowa. The Wildcats advanced to the Big Ten Tournament championship game for the first time since 2003, falling to the Wolverines in the contest.
The Wildcats overall record of 42-12 is just one shy of the program's highest-ever total, and ties last year's squad for the second-most in school history.
Following is the schedule for the Northwestern regional to be played Friday through Sunday, May 19-21:
Friday, May 19
Noon: Game 1 -- Notre Dame vs. UC Santa Barbara
2:30 p.m.: Game 2 -- Northwestern vs. Southern Illinois
Saturday, May 20
11 a.m.: Game 3 -- Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
1:30 p.m.: Game 4 -- Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
4 p.m.: Game 5 -- Winner Game 4 vs. Loser Game 3
Sunday, May 21
Noon: Game 6 -- Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5
2:30 p.m.: Game 7 -- Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6 (if necessary).
