Saint Joseph’s to Face Western Connecticut in NCAA Opening Round

Saint Joseph’s to Face Western Connecticut in NCAA Opening Round

2014 NCAA DIII SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT BRACKET

STANDISH, ME – The 62-team field for the 2014 NCAA DIII Softball Tournament has been announced and Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Champion Saint Joseph's College is set to play Western Connecticut State University in the first round of the national tourney on Friday, May 9th in a four-team regional hosted by Wellesley College.

Saint Joseph's, 33-4 overall and 20-2 in GNAC play this spring, will take on Little East Conference (LEC) foe Western Connecticut (31-11-1, 10-4 LEC) in what will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs on Friday (game time TBA). Tournament pod-host Wellesley (27-9, 15-3 NEWMAC) battles Bridgewater State University (29-12, 13-1 MASCAC) in the other first-round contest that day. Game times for the double-elimination tourney will be determined on Tuesday morning.

Including the Monks, three of the four teams at the Wellesley Regional won their respective conference tournament championships en route to earning automatic NCAA Tournament qualifiers. Bridgewater won the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Tournament championship for the second-consecutive year while Wellesley claimed the 2014 New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) title. Western Connecticut collected one of the 19 at-large berths - awarded to programs from automatic qualifying conferences from around the country – after placing third in the LEC Tournament.

The Wellesley site winner advances to a best two out of three Super Regional against the winner of the Williams College Regional, which features the Ephs, Endicott College, Lesley University and 2013 NCAA DIII Softball Champion Tufts University. The Super Regional round takes place on May 16th and 17th.

The Monks, currently ranked fourth in the Northeast Region, will be making the program's fourth-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance after claiming the GNAC Championship in each of the last four seasons. Saint Joseph's, the top seed in the conference tourney, collected the GNAC's automatic qualifier into the national tournament with a 4-1 victory over #3 Simmons College in the GNAC Championship game at Richard W. Bailey Field on Sunday, April 27th.

For Western Connecticut, ranked fourth in New England in the latest NCAA Regional Rankings, this year's national tournament appearance will be the Colonials third in the last four years and 12th overall. Seeded third in the LEC Tournament, Western Connecticut fell to eventual conference champion Keene State College in the tourney's second round and was eliminated from contention with an extra-inning loss at the hands of #5 Rhode Island College on Sunday, May 4th.

Under the watch of 17th-year Head Coach Jamie Smyth '92, Saint Joseph's has shown well at the NCAA Tournament with at least one victory in two of the last three years. In 2011, as the #6 seed in the Providence Regional, the Monks defeated #3 Endicott College and #2 Coast Guard Academy before bowing out of the tourney with hard-fought losses to Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island College. St. Joe's suffered losses to Keene State (4-2) and Keuka College (5-4, eight innings) at Amherst College in 2012 and last spring, as the #5 seed at Babson College, Saint Joseph's fell to fourth-seeded Springfield College before defeating #8 Lesley University and losing to #2 Rowan University.

With the 2014 berth, eighth-year Head Coach Heather Stone has led the Colonials to four NCAA Tournament appearances since taking the helm in 2007. Last spring, Western won the LEC Championship and played four games in the Ithaca Regional Tournament, with wins over St. John Fisher and Utica and losses at the hands of Cortland and St. John Fisher. At Ithaca in 2011, the Colonials toppled Muhlenberg but fell to St. John Fisher and Ithaca in the NCAA tourney. In 2008, Western played five games in the Glassboro, New Jersey Regional, opening with a narrow loss to Muskingum before posting victories over Kean, Rowan and Hunter and closing the run with a defeat at the hands of Mount Union.

The NCAA DIII Softball Championship will use a new format this year that includes a super-regional round of competition. The regional rounds will be held May 9-11. Four teams will compete at 14 regional sites and three teams will compete at two regional sites. The team advancing from each regional will compete in the super regional round May 16 and 17. The finals, hosted by Texas-Tyler, will be held May 22-27 at Suddenlink Field in Tyler, Texas. All rounds will use a double-elimination format.

Forty-two conferences received automatic qualification (Pool A). One institution was selected from Pool B, which includes independent institutions and institutions from conferences that do not meet the automatic qualification criteria. The 19 remaining teams were selected on an at-large basis from automatic qualifying conferences and the remaining institutions in Pool B.

 

 

Follow Saint Joseph's Athletics on FacebookTwitter and YouTube!

 

Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.