INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA Division III Softball Committee announced the 62 teams on Monday that will comprise the field for Division III Softball Championship.
Undefeated two-time defending champion Tufts University (41-0), the unanimous choice atop the NFCA Top 25 Poll since last April, heads the list of qualifying teams. The Jumbos have now won 43 straight games and 74 of their last 75.
In all, 24 teams ranked in the NFCA Top 25 and six of eight teams receiving votes are in the NCAA tournament field. Last year’s Division III runner-up, Salisbury (30-6), which lost an epic 14-inning affair with Tufts in the second game of the Championship Series and is the No. 6 team in the NFCA poll, is one of 16 hosts for the May 8-10 regional round.
The Sea Gulls are also one of two three-team pods in this round of the tournament, joined by No. 10 Virginia Wesleyan (29-6) and McDaniel (29-10) later this week. The other three-team regional host is Rochester (27-11), which was one of the eight teams that advanced to the NCAA Championship last year in Tyler, Texas. Joining the Yellowjackets are No. 24 Moravian (34-5) and Penn State-Berks (17-12). The other 14 regionals are four-team pods.
American Southwest Conference rivals Texas-Tyler (41-2) and East Texas Baptist (33-4) — the second and third-ranked teams in the NFCA Top 25, respectively — are grouped together with No. 15 Texas Lutheran (36-4) and Whittier (28-16) in a four-team pod that will be hosted by Tyler.
Other Top 25 teams or squads receiving votes in the poll that are competing in the NCAA tournament include No. 4 Luther (36-4), No. 5 Trine (37-3), No. 7 Emory (31-7), No. 8 Wisconsin-Whitewater (36-7), No. 9 Rowan (36-6), 11th-ranked Illinois Wesleyan (36-8), 12th-ranked Christopher Newport (27-7), 13th-ranked North Central (Ill.) (31-7), 14th-ranked St. Thomas (Minn.) (34-10), No. 16 Central (Iowa) (30-9), No. 17 Wheaton (Mass.) (30-8), No. 18 Alfred (35-4) and 19th-ranked Averett (34-3-1). The two teams tied last week for No. 20, Washington (Mo.) (33-11) and Hope (27-9), are both in, as are No. 22 Cortland (35-11) and No. 23 Fontbonne (30-9). Williams (30-7), Berry (32-6), Ramapo (28-12-1), Heidelberg (30-8), William Paterson (27-11-1) and Eastern Connecticut State (29-6-1) are teams receiving votes that are also in the tournament field.
Forty-two conferences received automatic qualification (Pool A), while two institutions were selected from Pool B (independent institutions and institutions from conferences that do not meet the automatic qualification criteria). The 18 remaining tournament teams were selected on an at-large basis from automatic qualifying conferences and the remaining institutions in Pool B.
Teams winning their respective double-elimination regionals this weekend advance to super regionals on May 15-16. The eight super regional titlists advance to the NCAA Championship on May 21-26 at the Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Va.
Click HERE to see the entire NCAA bracket. The qualifying teams are the following:
The conferences and teams that received automatic qualification were:
Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference - Penn State-Behrend
American Southwest Conference - Texas-Tyler
Capital Athletic Conference - Christopher Newport
Centennial Conference - McDaniel
City University of New York Athletic Conference - Staten Island
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin - Illinois Wesleyan
Colonial States Athletic Conference - Neumann
Commonwealth Coast Conference - Western New England
Commonwealth Conference - Lebanon Valley
Empire 8 - Alfred
Freedom Conference - DeSales
Great Northeast Athletic Conference - Johnson & Wales (Rhode Island)
Great South Athletic Conference - Salem
Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference - Anderson (Indiana)
Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference - Central (Iowa)
Landmark Conference - Moravian
Liberty League - Rochester
Little East Conference - Eastern Connecticut State
Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference - Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts|
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association - Trine
Midwest Conference - Lake Forest
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference - Gustavus Adolphus
New England Collegiate Conference - Elms
New England Small College Athletic Conference - Tufts
New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference - Wellesley
New Jersey Athletic Conference - Ramapo
North Atlantic Conference - Husson
North Coast Athletic Conference - DePauw
North Eastern Athletic Conference - Penn State-Berks
Northern Athletics Conference - Aurora
Northwest Conference - Linfield
Ohio Athletic Conference - Heidelberg
Old Dominion Athletic Conference - Randolph-Macon
Presidents' Athletic Conference - Thomas More
Skyline Conference - Farmingdale State
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference - Whittier
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference - Texas Lutheran
St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference - Fontbonne
State University of New York Athletic Conference - SUNY Cortland
Upper Midwest Athletic Conference - St. Scholastica
USA South Athletic Conference - LaGrange
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference - Wisconsin-Whitewater
The institutions selected from Pool B were:
Berry
Emory
The 18 institutions selected from Pool C were:
Alma
Averett
East Texas Baptist
Hope
Kean
Luther
MIT
North Central (Illinois)
Rowan
St. Thomas (Minnesota)
Salisbury
Simpson
Virginia Wesleyan
Washington U. in St. Louis
Wheaton (Massachusetts)
William Paterson
Williams
WPI
The 16 regional sites are:
Alfred, N.Y. - Alfred, host
Atlanta, Ga. - Emory, host
Bloomington, Ill. - Illinois Wesleyan, host
Cortland, N.Y. - SUNY Cortland, host
Decorah, Iowa - Luther, host
Greencastle, Ind. - DePauw, host
Lake Forest, Ill. - Lake Forest, host
Medford, Mass. - Tufts, host
Newport News, Va. - Christopher Newport, host
Norton, Mass. - Wheaton (MA), host
Pella, Iowa - Central (Iowa), host
Rochester, N.Y. - Rochester, host
Salisbury, Md. - Salisbury, host
Union, N.J. - Kean, host
Tyler, Texas - Texas-Tyler, host
Williamstown, Mass. - Williams, host
—Information courtesy of the NCAA
