HOUSTON, Texas — The University of St. Thomas softball team is headed back to the NCAA Division III Softball Championship after earning the program's first-ever Pool C at-large bid, securing a place among the nation's top 64 teams.
See Bracket here....
St. Thomas (30-10) will travel to Marshall to compete in a four-team double-elimination regional hosted by East Texas Baptist University. The Celts will open postseason play against No. 17 Rowan University (36-8), which earned the automatic bid from the New Jersey Athletic Conference after capturing its third consecutive conference tournament championship. Game times and the full regional schedule will be announced by the host institution.
Although St. Thomas fell just short of claiming the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament title, the Celts' body of work throughout the season proved they were among the nation's elite. Their selection to the NCAA Tournament underscores the consistency and quality the team displayed from start to finish against one of Division III softball's strongest schedules.
This season marks St. Thomas' third NCAA Tournament appearance in the last four years and further solidifies the program's emergence as a national contender. The Celts enter the postseason with a 30-10 overall record and are 3-4 in their previous two NCAA Tournament appearances.
The winner of the St. Thomas-Rowan matchup will advance in the winner's bracket to face the victor of host East Texas Baptist University (37-4) and Denison University (20-19).
The regional round will be held May 14-16 at East Texas Baptist. Sixteen regional sites, each featuring four teams in a double-elimination format, will determine the participants for the Super Regionals, scheduled for May 21-22. The eight Super Regional winners will advance to the NCAA Division III Softball Championship Finals, which will take place May 28-June 3 at Moyer Sports Complex in Salem.
A total of 42 conferences received automatic bids to the championship, while 22 additional teams, including St. Thomas, were selected at-large based on the NCAA Power Index (NPI).
Rowan will be making its third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 14th overall. The matchup marks the first NCAA Tournament meeting between St. Thomas and Rowan and the first postseason contest for the Celts against a program from the NJAC.
