Monday, May 8, 2017

PORTLAND, Ore. – Western Washington will travel to Cal State Monterey Bay for its first NCAA Division II Softball Championship appearance in 10 years as the tournament’s selections were announced Monday morning by the NCAA.

Slotted as the No. 8 team in the West Region, the Vikings will play the No. 1 seeded and sub-regional host Otters on Thursday. Game time will be announced later today.

The other game in the Monterey Bay sub-regional will pit No. 4 Dixie State against No. 5 Sonoma State. The second western sub-regional, which will be played at Chico, Calif., will have No. 2 seed Humboldt State facing No. 7 seed California Baptist and No. 3 seed Chico State taking on No. 6 seed Cal State San Bernardino.

The winner of each sub-regional will face each other next weekend in a three-game regional championship series.

Western Washington finished the second in the GNAC regular season standings and earned the conference’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA Championships by winning the GNAC Softball Championships on Sunday. The Vikings defeated Western Oregon, 5-0, in the championship game that saw freshman pitcher and tournament MVP Anna Kasner throw a two-hit shutout. Western Washington enters the NCAA tournament on an 11-game win streak.

The Vikings enter the NCAA Championships with a .314 team batting average, third in the GNAC and a 3.30 earned run average, which ranks second in the league.

This is the third NCAA Tournament appearance for Western Washington since the formation of the GNAC in 2001-02 and the fourth overall trip as a Division II program. Western Washington last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2011, falling to Chico State 3-1.