Northwestern University Athletics
No. 4 Seed Northwestern Opens NCAA Tournament at Home
5/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 17, 2006
Northwestern's Postseason Notes in PDF Format
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern enters its ninth NCAA Tournament and fourth in a row with the program's best-ever seed, and will host a regional for the first time in the current 64-team format.
Seeded fourth, NU plays host to Southern Illinois in the teams' opening game at 2:30 p.m. Friday, May 19. Notre Dame and UC Santa Barbara round out the Evanston Regional field, and will face each other at noon Friday to begin 2006 NCAA play at Sharon J. Drysdale Field.
Northwestern is seeded for the second year in a row after receiving the No. 9 seed in 2005. The first round Regional is a double-elimination tournament with the winner advancing to a best-two-of-three Super Regional to compete for a Women's College World Series berth.
Northwestern owns a 20-12 record against the 2006 NCAA Tournament field, having played 58.6 percent of its games against teams in the event. The Wildcats played 11 contests against the top 12 seeds, earning wins against No. 1 UCLA, No. 7 Oregon State, No. 9 Michigan and No. 10 California.
In the 'Cats previous three NCAA appearances under two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year Kate Drohan, they have improved their performance each year. After going 1-2 in 2003 and 2-2 in 2004, NU won its regional before bowing out with a 4-3 overall record in the Tournament last season.
With 42 wins at the moment, NU has matched its second-best win total in program history, set last season. The Wildcats need just one more win to match the 1987 team's 43-win campaign at the top of that list.
Entering the weekend, four Wildcats earned first-team All-Mideast Region accolades as voted on by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA). Eileen Canney, Garland Cooper, Katie Logan and Tammy Williams all picked up honors for the 'Cats, the most first-team selections in program history.
For Northwestern's complete NCAA Tournament notes package, click on the .pdf link at the top of this page.
THE BROADCASTS!
NUsports.com All-Access
Every game of the Regional will be Web cast live with streaming audio and video. The streams are available at NUsports.com, ncaasports.com and CSTV.com FREE OF CHARGE. To access the broadcasts, visit the special tournament page at NUsports.com by clicking on the NCAA Regional button.
WNUR 89.3 FM
Northwestern student radio WNUR 89.3 FM will broadcast all of NU's games lives at the NCAA Regional in Evanston and throughout the NCAA postseason.
Gametracker
Gametracker will be available for all NCAA Regional games this weekend.
