Central Michigan Headed To Ann Arbor For NCAA Regionals

The Central Michigan University softball team will represent the Mid-American Conference at the NCAA regionals, May 18-21, in Ann Arbor, Mich. The sixth-seeded Chippewas open play on May 18 against top-seed Stanford at 10 a.m.

This is the second straight trip to the NCAA regionals for Central Michigan. CMU earned the Mid-American Conference's automatic bid by defeating Bowling Green, 9-4, in the championship game of the 2000 Mid-American Conference softball tournament on May 13.

Here's a look at the 2000 NCAA Division I Women's Softball Championship.

DATES/SITES/PAIRINGS:

May 18-21 at Tucson, Arizona
No. 1 seed *Arizona (53-7)
No. 2 seed Nebraska (49-19)
No. 3 seed South Carolina (38-26)
No. 4 seed Massachusetts (32-20)
No. 5 seed Illinois State (26-31)
No. 6 seed Middle Tennessee State (36-19)

May 18-21 at Norman, Oklahoma
No. 1 seed *Oklahoma (56-8)
No. 2 seed Oregon State (37-19-1)
No. 3 seed Arkansas (41-28)
No. 4 seed Cal State Northridge (26-24)
No. 5 seed Northwestern (28-24)
No. 6 seed Harvard (19-19)

May 18-21 at Los Angeles
No. 1 seed *UCLA (39-10-1)
No. 2 seed Iowa (44-13)
No. 3 seed Long Beach State (39-21)
No. 4 seed Florida State (48-25)
No. 5 seed Bethune-Cookman (39-25)
No. 6 seed Canisius (33-22)

May 18-21 at Tempe, Arizona
No. 1 seed *Arizona State (40-18)
No. 2 seed Alabama (61-12)
No. 3 seed Penn State (38-17)
No. 4 seed Texas A&M (32-21)
No. 5 seed Florida Atlantic (57-15)
No. 6 seed Coastal Carolina (34-27)

May 18-21 at Fresno, California
No. 1 seed *Fresno State (51-12)
No. 2 seed Cal State Fullerton (44-13)
No. 3 seed California (45-22)
No. 4 seed Florida (44-28)
No. 5 seed Texas (29-25-1)
No. 6 seed UMBC (30-26)

May 18-21 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana
No. 1 seed *LSU (56-10)
No. 2 seed Southern Mississippi (56-10)
No. 3 seed Louisiana-Lafayette (44-13)
No. 4 seed Hofstra (41-19)
No. 5 seed Oregon (33-27)
No. 6 seed Northwestern State (41-17)

May 18-21 at Ann Arbor, Michigan
No. 1 seed Stanford (45-16)
No. 2 seed *Michigan (42-15)
No. 3 seed Notre Dame (46-12)
No. 4 seed Illinois-Chicago (52-23)
No. 5 seed DePaul (35-20)
No. 6 seed Central Michigan (28-11)

Teams advancing to the Women's College World Series, May 25-29 at the Don Porter Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, will be seeded into the bracket after the regionals.

CHAMPIONSHIP STRUCTURE:
The Division I championship provides for a field of 48 teams. Six teams will participate 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 18-21 on the campuses of competing institutions. The Women's College World Series will be May 25-29 at the Don Porter Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

SELECTION PROCESS:
The Division I Women's Softball Committee selected teams from the following six regions to participate in the championship: Northeast, South, Mideast, Midwest, West and Pacific. Twenty-three conferences have been granted automatic qualification for the 2000 championship. Two conferences will participate in a play-in to determine the twenty-fourth automatic berth.

CONFERENCES RECEIVING AUTOMATIC QUALIFICATION:
America East Conference - Hofstra
Atlantic 10 Conference - Massachusetts
Atlantic Coast Conference - Florida State
Big East Conference - Notre Dame
Big South Conference - Coastal Carolina
Big Ten Conference -Michigan
Big Twelve Conference -Nebraska
Big West Conference - Cal State Fullerton
Ivy Group - Harvard
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference - Canisius
Mid-American Athletic Conference -Central Michigan
Mid-Continent Conference -Western Illinois
Mid-Eastern Conference - Bethune-Cookman
Midwestern Collegiate Conference - Illinois-Chicago
Missouri Valley Conference - Illinois State
Northeast Conference - UMBC
Ohio Valley Conference - Middle Tennessee State
Pacific-10 Conference - Washington
Patriot League - Army
Southeastern Conference - South Carolina
Southern Conference - Chattanooga
Southland Conference - Northwestern State
Trans America Athletic Conference - Florida Atlantic
Western Athletic Conference -Fresno State

TELEVISION COVERAGE:
ESPN2 will televise games 11 and 12 live at 1 and 3:30 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, May 28. 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 at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. If only one "if neccesary" 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 29.

CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES:
Seven teams are making their debut in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship, including Army, Arkansas, Bethune-Cookman, Chattanooga, UMBC, Middle Tennessee State and Mississippi State.

For the second-straight year, the Pacific-10 Conference has qualified all eight teams for the championship field. The Southeastern Conference will have six representing squads. Both the Big Twelve and the Big Ten had four teams selected to the field, while the Big West had three teams selected. Although Conference USA does not have an automatic qualification bid, the conference had two teams were selected to the field. All other conferences had one representative.

1999 Highlights: UCLA claimed the Women's College World Series title May 31 with a 3-2 victory over Washington at Don

E. Porter Hall of Fame Stadium. It was the Bruins' first title since 1992.

UCLA opened the title game swinging away and took a two-run lead before Washington stepped to the plate. Julie Adams, who was named the tournament's most outstanding player, registered two RBIs on a single to left field during her first at-bat. In the second inning, Courtney Dale completed the UCLA scoring with a solo home run to left field.