May 14, 2006

2006 NCAA Tournament Softball Bracket
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By Matt Crouch
www.siusalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Make it four years in a row for the #25 Southern Illinois University softball team as the Salukis will travel to its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament this week.

SIU (34-11) will face #4 seed Northwestern (42-12) in Evanston, Ill. Also in the bracket are Notre Dame (38-19) and the University of California - Santa Barbara (24-20).

The Salukis are one of three teams from the Missouri Valley Conference to advance to the NCAA Tournament. Illinois State, the regular-season MVC champion, will face #10 seed California in the first round while MVC Tournament champion Missouri State will face #1 overall seed UCLA in the first round.

SIU is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. start against Northwestern at Sharon J. Drysdale Field. UCSB and Notre Dame open up action at the regional tournament with a 12 p.m. start.

This year marks the fifth time overall that SIU has made the NCAA tournament with the first time being in 1991.

Salukis head coach Kerri Blaylock sports a 7-5 record in the NCAA Tournament. SIU went 1-2 last season with the lone win coming 3-0 over Missouri.

The Salukis went 3-2 in each of the two previous seasons, beating Fresno State, Southern Mississippi and Pacific in 2004; and Massachusetts (2) and Stanford in 2003.