UA Softball Will Travel for Regional Round
The Wildcats will meet Canisius in their first game of the NCAA Softball Championship Regionals on Friday.
The Arizona Wildcats have locked up the No. 7 seed in the NCAA Softball Championship and will travel to Long Island, N.Y., for the Hempstead Regional to take on Canisius, Long Island and host team Hofstra.
Arizona (36-16) will take on Canisius in the first game of the tournament at noon on Friday. The winner meets the winner of the Long Island-Hofstra game, which will be held immediately following the Arizona game. The loser of game one meets the loser of game two in the second scheduled game on Saturday.
Arizona was selected to its 22nd consecutive NCAA appearance, and will travel for the first round of play for the sixth time. The UA has been sent to Tempe, Ariz., for three trips including 1987, 1988 and 1989; to Tallahassee, Fla., in 1996; and to Minneapolis in 2002.
The Golden Griffins of Canisius sit at 38-12 on the season and wrapped up the MAAC championship over the weekend. Canisius was a visitor to Tucson in NCAA play in 1994, and the UA won 7-0 in the only NCAA Championships meeting between the two teams. Canisius, in Western New York, won its 11th Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.
Long Island has compiled a 34-15 record and was beaten earlier in the season by the UA, 4-0, in the Palm Springs Classic. The Blackbirds won their school's 11th Northeast Conference championship this weekend.
This Sunday, Hofstra (43-11) won its 11th consecutive Colonial Athletic Association Championship. The Pride and Arizona have not met in tournament play, nor has the UA played Long Island in NCAA action.
Next week, the winner from Hempstead will meet the winner from an NCAA Regional in Norman, Okla., where host Oklahoma will play Oregon of the Pac-10 in the opening round opposite Arkansas and Tulsa. The NCAA will determine the host site for the Super Regionals following play in the first rounds this week.
Seven Pac-10 teams made the tournament. Arizona State and UCLA were chosen to host Regionals, while Stanford will travel to Amherst, Mass.; Washington will travel to Houston; California plays at Fresno, Calif.; Oregon travels to Norman, Okla.; and Arizona travels to the metropolitan New York area.
Arizona interim head coach Larry Ray earns his second NCAA berth with the UA's appearance. The 2004 Wildcats – also during an Olympic year requiring a leave of absence by head coach Mike Candrea – played host to a Tucson regional as the overall No. 1 seed.
Arizona wrapped up its 2008 regular season with five consecutive victories, including two over Washington, one against Cal and two against Stanford. The Cats finished alone in third place in the Pac-10 with a 13-8 mark.
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