Opponents View: NCAA extends UO's ride with softball tourney bid
It was a bit of a bumpy ride into the NCAA softball tournament, but for the third straight year Oregon is a part of the championship season.
The Ducks start their postseason on Friday at 3 p.m. PDT against Louisiana-Lafayette in a Region 14 first-round game at Norman, Okla. The region's other first-round matchup has 14th-seeded Oklahoma playing Wichita State.
Oregon, scheduled to leave for the Midwest on Wednesday, is one of 36 at-large teams joining 28 clubs with automatic bids to comprise the 64-team field.
There are 16 four-team regionals with double-elimination formats. The 16 winners advance to the super-regionals May 27-28, and the eight super-regional champions earn trips to the Women's College World Series at Oklahoma City, Okla., on June 2-8.
"I'm so thrilled we're going," UO coach Kathy Arendsen said after the tournament field was announced on Sunday. "You can't take anything for granted, and when you're in an at-large situation, you hope."
The Ducks finished the regular season with a 34-23 record. They were seventh in the eight-team Pac-10 Conference with a 7-14 mark. They lost 10 games to poor weather. And they did not have an all-league pitcher from last season, Ani Nyhus, because of injury.
"We've gone through struggles and adversity," Arendsen said, "but I think this is a much stronger ballclub. We peaked late and are playing very well now.
"I like our chances. I have a feeling this team can make a huge splash in the postseason."
All eight of the Pac-10 Conference teams were awarded tickets to the tournament, including sixth-ranked Oregon State, which secured the league title by virtue of tiebreakers over No. 2 California, No. 3 Arizona and No. 4 Stanford.
The eighth-seeded Beavers, 40-14, play Wisconsin-Green Bay on Friday in a Region 8 first-round game at Madison, Wis.
Oregon won its way into regional championship games the last two seasons but lost in 2004 to Florida State and in 2003 to Louisiana-Lafayette.
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By Bob Rodman
The Register-Guard
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