Despite losing in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament to rival North Carolina, NC State’s softball team has made the 64-team field of the 2014 NCAA Division I Softball Championship, which gets underway on May 15 and runs through June 4.Three other ACC teams made the tournament: Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and Florida State, which earned the league’s automatic bid.
Eighth-seeded Florida State (50-6), competing in the NCAA Championship for the 15th consecutive season, will take on Fordham (36-18). The winner will then advance to take on either South Carolina (35-20) or South Florida (41-15). The Seminoles claimed their 12th overall league title last Saturday afternoon, as they were able to defeat Notre Dame, 3-1.
NC State (34-16) will be in the Athens Regional and will face UAB (31-25) in its first game. The Wolfpack is making its fourth appearance in the tournament. Joining NC State in the Athens regional is Chattanooga (34-19) and fourth-seeded Georgia (45-12).
Virginia Tech (35-21) is making its seventh appearance in the tournament and third in a row. The Hokies will face Lipscomb (39-13) in the first game of the Knoxville Regional and will be joined by Charleston Southern (27-31-1) and 10th-seeded Tennessee (42-10) in the region.
Notre Dame (39-11), the ACC Championship runner-up, will travel to Los Angeles to compete against Long Beach State (38-17) in its first game. Joining the Fighting Irish in the Los Angeles Regional is third-seeded UCLA (48-6) and Southern Utah (23-29). The Fighting Irish are making their 16th straight appearance in the NCAA Championship.
The ACC has had at least four teams earn tournament bids in eight of the last 10 years.
Regionals for the NCAA Division I Softball Championship will be held May 15-18 on 16 campus sites. At each campus site, a four-team, double-elimination tournament will be conducted and the 16 winning teams advance to the Super Regionals.
Super Regionals for the championship will be held May 22-25 on eight campus sites. At each site, two teams play in a best-of-three tournament format. The winners from each site advance to the NCAA Women’s College World Series.