No. 21 Simpson College (28-10) has been awarded an at-large berth in the 2008 NCAA Division III Softball Tournament.  The Storm will be traveling to Eau Claire, Wis. to play in a regional hosted by UW-Eau Claire.  The Storm are the No. 4 seed and will play the fifth seed, Illinois Wesleyan (29-9) Thursday, May 8.  The Titans (29-9) are ranked 23rd in the current NFCA Top 25 poll. All games will be played at Gelein Field in Eau Claire.

Seeded first in the regional that will determine the No. 3 seed at next week’s national tournament is St. Thomas, Minn. (40-3), the second seed is UW-Oshkosh (27-8), followed by North Central, Ill. (29-11).  The sixth seed is the host, UW-Eau Claire (28-11) followed by Aurora (35-6) and Ripon (20-12).  St. Thomas is ranked No. 3 in the NFCA Top 25 while Oshkosh is ranked 14th.   Eau Claire is ranked 25th in the NFCA poll.  

This is the 13th time that Simpson has been selected to play in NCAA Division III Tournament and has a 35-22 record.  Ironically, Simpson has won both of its national championships (1997, 1999) in Eau Claire.  This is the first time the Storm have played in the NCAA Tournament since 2006.  Below is the tournament schedule;

Thursday, May 8

Game 1            No. 1 St. Thomas vs No. 8 Ripon           12 p.m.

Game 2            No. 4 Simpson vs No. 5 Ill. Wesleyan      2 p.m.     

Game 3            No. 3 North Central vs No. 6 UW-Eau Claire 4 p.m.

Game 4            No. 2 UW-Oshkosh vs No. 7 Aurora          6 p.m.

Friday, May 9

Game 5            Loser Game 1 vs Loser Game 2              12 p.m.

Game 6            Loser Game 3 vs Loser Game 4              2 p.m.

Game 7            Winner Game 1 vs Winner Game 2          4 p.m.

Game 8            Winner Game 3 vs Winner Game 4          6 p.m.

Saturday, May 10

Game 9            Winnner Game 6 vs Loser Game 7            12 p.m.

Game 10           Winner Game 5 vs Loser Game 8             2 p.m.

Game 11           Winner Game 7 vs Winner Game 8           4 p.m.

Game 12           Winner Game 9 vs Winner Game 10         6 p.m.

Sunday, May 11

Game 13           Winner Game 12 vs Loser Game 11           12 p.m.

Game 14           Winner Game 11 vs Winner Game 13          2 p.m.

Monday, May 12

Game 15           Winner Game 14 vs Loser Game 14*          12 p.m.

 

Tournament Website

Livestats Of Tournament Games (beginning May 8)

 

Ticket Information

Day Passes for Thursday, Friday, Saturday

$8 for adults, $6 for seniors, $4 for students

Day Passes for Sunday & Monday

$5 for adults, $3 for seniors, $2 for students

Tournament Pass

$15 for adults, $11 for seniors, $7 for students

Last Updated: 5/5/08