May 13, 2001
INDIANAPOLIS --- The NCAA Division I Women's Softball Committee has selected the 48-team field that will participate in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship.
Six teams participated at each of eight regional sites in a double-elimination tournament. Eight teams will be seeded and each of the seeded teams will be placed at one of the regional sites. The regional winners advance to the Women's College World Series, an eight-team, double-elimination tournament. (Note: The championship final is a single game final.)
Regionals will be conducted May 17-20 on the campuses of competing institutions. The Women's College World Series will be conducted May 24-28 at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
The Division I Women's Softball Committee selected teams from the following eight regions to participate in the championship: Central, East, Northeast, South, Mideast, Midwest, West and Pacific. Twenty-one conferences have been granted automatic qualification for the 2001 championship. Six conferences will participate in a play-in to determine the remaining three automatic berths.
Conferences receiving automatic berths are:
America East Conference - Hofstra Atlantic 10 Conference - Massachusetts Atlantic Coast Conference - Florida State Big East Conference - Connecticut Big South Conference - Coastal Carolina Big Ten Conference -Iowa Big Twelve Conference -Oklahoma Big West Conference - Cal State Fullerton Conference USA - Southern Mississippi Ivy Group - Cornell Mid-Continent Conference - Western Illinois Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference - Bethune-Cookman Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference - St. Peter's Mid-American Athletic Conference -Central Michigan Midwestern Collegiate Conference -Illinois-Chicago Missouri Valley Conference - Illinois State Mountain West - Brigham Young Pacific-10 Conference - Arizona Patriot League - Lehigh Southeastern Conference - LSU Southern Conference - Chattanooga Southland Conference - Southwest Texas State Trans America Athletic Conference - Florida Atlantic Western Athletic Conference - Fresno State
DATES/SITES/PAIRINGS: * Indicates host institution
Seed No. 1 - May 17-20 at Tucson, Arizona No. 1 seed *Arizona (57-4) No. 2 seed Cal State Fullerton (46-12) No. 3 seed Hawaii (45-15) No. 4 seed Southwest Texas State (52-10) No. 5 seed Texas Tech (35-22) No. 6 seed St. Peter's (39-18)
Seed No. 2 - May 17-20 at Los Angeles No. 1 seed *UCLA (53-5) No. 2 seed Fresno State (38-17) No. 3 seed Cal State Northridge (31-22) No. 4 seed San Diego State (38-23) No. 5 seed Wisconsin (32-25) No. 6 seed Coastal Carolina (27-21)
Seed No. 3 - May 17-20 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana No. 1 seed *LSU (53-9) No. 2 seed Arizona State (34-20) No. 3 seed Louisiana-Lafayette (48-8) No. 4 seed Southern Mississippi (45-19) No. 5 seed Penn State (32-25) No. 6 seed Cornell (35-16)
Seed No. 4 - May 17-20 at Tuscaloosa, Alabama No. 1 seed *Alabama (48-9) No. 2 seed Michigan (39-15-1) No. 3 seed Oregon State (42-22) No. 4 seed South Florida (41-32) No. 5 seed Chattanooga (48-16) No. 6 seed Illinois-Chicago (46-23)
Seed No. 5 - May 17-20 at Norman, Oklahoma No. 1 seed *Oklahoma (45-7) No. 2 seed Washington (37-21) No. 3 seed North Carolina (37-17-1) No. 4 seed Massachusetts (43-11) No. 5 seed Seton Hall (29-14) No. 6 seed Lehigh (38-13)
Seed No. 6 - May 17-20 at Stanford, California No. 1 seed *Stanford (48-13-1) No. 2 seed Nebraska (49-13) No. 3 seed Pacific (California) (47-11) No. 4 seed Central Michigan (36-18) No. 5 seed Brigham Young (35-24) No. 6 seed Hofstra (36-24)
Seed No. 7 - May 17-20 at Iowa City, Iowa No. 1 seed *Notre Dame(51-5) No. 2 seed Iowa (45-12) No. 3 seed South Carolina (40-18-1) No. 4 seed DePaul (50-14-1) No. 5 seed Illinois State (35-16) No. 6 seed Western Illinois (33-19)
Seed No. 8 - May 17-20 at Tallahassee, Florida No. 1 seed *Florida State (54-10) No. 2 seed California (49-14) No. 3 seed Florida Atlantic (45-19) No. 4 seed Florida (36-25) No. 5 seed Connecticut (35-21) No. 6 seed Bethune-Cookman (45-21)
Teams advancing to the Women's College World Series, May 24-28 at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, will advance into the Women's College World Series bracket according to regional seeding.
ESPN2 will televise games one through five and 10 through 12 live. All game times listed are Eastern time: Game 1 - 11 a.m., Game 2 - 1:30 p.m., Game 3 - 7 p.m., Game 4 - 9:30 p.m., Game 5 - 7 p.m., Game 10 - 9:30 p.m., Game 11 - 1 p.m., Game 12 - 3:30 p.m.
ESPN will televise games seven and nine live: Game 7 - Noon, Game 9 - 7 p.m. Because this is a double elimination format, one or two games may be played on Sunday evening. If two games are played, they will be shown live on ESPN2 at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. If only one "if necessary" game is played, it will be played at 6 p.m. Eastern time. The championship game will be shown live on ESPN at 1:15 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, May 28.
In the 2000 championship, Oklahoma made it a year of firsts for its team and the Women's College World Series as the Sooners claimed the title with a 3-1 victory over defending champion UCLA May 29, at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.
In their first trip to the Women's College World Series, the Sooners became the first team west of the Rocky Mountains to win the title since 1987 and the first host institution in Division I softball history to win the title.
Along with a local team came the fans as the Women's College World Series set a new four-day attendance record of 38,102, which had previously been set at 27,553 in 1998. The 2000 championship match-up drew 8,049.