May 12, 2003

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INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA Division Women's Softball Committee has selected the 64 teams that will compete in the championship. This is the first year for the 64-team bracket. Last year's bracket provided for 48 teams.

Eight teams will participate at each of eight regional sites in a double-elimination tournament. Eight teams will be seeded and each of the seeded teams will be placed at one of the regional sites. The regional winners advance to the Women's College World Series (WCWS), an eight-team, double-elimination tournament. (Note: The championship final is a single-game final.) Regionals will be conducted May 15-18. The WCWS will be conducted May 22-26 at the ASA Don E. Porter Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

The NCAA Division I Women's Softball Committee selected teams from the following eight regions to participate in the championship: Central, East, Northeast, South, Mideast, Midwest, West and Pacific. Twenty-six conferences have been granted automatic qualification for the 2003 championship.

The top eight teams were seeded in order, and the remainder of the teams were placed in regional brackets to create balanced competition and avoid conference match ups when possible. Teams hosting regionals, which were named two weeks prior to team selections for the first time this year, were not guaranteed a bid to the championship.

The dates, sites and pairings are as follows:

DATES/SITES/PAIRINGS:
* Indicates host institution

Seed No. 1 - May 15-18 at Tucson, Arizona
No. 1 seed *Arizona (50-5)
No. 2 seed South Carolina (38-18)
No. 3 seed Texas A&M (35-20)
No. 4 seed Minnesota (35-18-1)
No. 5 seed Cal State Northridge (26-21)
No. 6 seed Boston College (33-20)
No. 7 seed Princeton (23-19-1)
No. 8 seed Colorado State (35-13)

Seed No. 2 - May 15-18 at Fresno, California
No. 1 seed UCLA (45-6)
No. 2 seed Georgia (55-12)
No. 3 seed Michigan State (37-17)
No. 4 seed *Fresno State (33-20)
No. 5 seed Long Beach State (29-17)
No. 6 seed North Carolina (39-20-1)
No. 7 seed Long Island (29-19)
No. 8 seed Colgate (30-13)

Seed No. 3 - May 15-18 at Austin, Texas
No. 1 seed *Texas (43-7)
No. 2 seed Northwestern (35-17)
No. 3 seed Arizona State (30-23)
No. 4 seed LSU (49-16)
No. 5 seed Hawaii (37-18)
No. 6 seed Southwest Texas State (43-16-1)
No. 7 seed Tennessee Tech (41-14)
No. 8 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (31-22)

Seed No. 4 - May 15-18 at Gainesville, Florida
No. 1 seed Oklahoma (39-12)
No. 2 seed Florida State (45-9)
No. 3 seed *Florida (40-23)
No. 4 seed South Florida (53-17)
No. 5 seed Florida Atlantic (42-26)
No. 6 seed Oregon State (32-29)
No. 7 seed Texas-Arlington (39-15)
No. 8 seed Bethune-Cookman (45-19)

Seed No. 5 - May 15-18 at Lincoln, Nebraska
No. 1 seed Washington (40-14-1)
No. 2 seed *Nebraska (36-15)
No. 3 seed Iowa (40-13)
No. 4 seed Mississippi State (33-28)
No. 5 seed Florida International (35-25)
No. 6 seed Pacific (Cal.) (34-22)
No. 7 seed Hofstra (37-15)
No. 8 seed Creighton (25-22)

Seed No. 6 - May 15-18 at Fullerton, California
No. 1 seed *Cal State Fullerton (39-13)
No. 2 seed Oklahoma State (36-13)
No. 3 seed Oregon (32-17)
No. 4 seed Louisiana-Lafayette (43-8)
No. 5 seed San Diego State (37-18)
No. 6 seed Penn State (30-21)
No. 7 seed Boston U. (33-21)
No. 8 seed Rider (24-23)

Seed No. 7 - May 15-18 at Ann Arbor, Michigan
No. 1 seed DePaul (46-5-1)
No. 2 seed California (41-18)
No. 3 seed *Michigan (40-14)
No. 4 seed Notre Dame (36-15)
No. 5 seed Missouri (29-18)
No. 6 seed Western Michigan (30-22)
No. 7 seed Oakland (33-23)
No. 8 seed Wright State (15-35)

Seed No. 8 - May 15-18 at Tuscaloosa, Alabama
No. 1 seed *Alabama (45-19)
No. 2 seed Stanford (40-24)
No. 3 seed Massachusetts (36-13)
No. 4 seed Illinois (38-15-1)
No. 5 seed Georgia Tech (35-23)
No. 6 seed Southern Illinois (36-12)
No. 7 seed Chattanooga (35-28)
No. 8 seed Southern U. (19-10)

Teams advancing to the Women's College World Series (WCWS), May 22-26 at the Amateur Sports Association's (ASA) Don E. Porter Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City will be advanced into the WCWS bracket according to the overall regional seeding (i.e., regional No. 1 winner will be seed No.1).