May 14, 2008

Northwestern's NCAA Regional Game Notes (PDF Format)

NCAA Tournament Evanston Regional Home Page

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EVANSTON, Ill. -- For the third-consecutive year, Northwestern will start its journey toward Oklahoma City and the Women's College World Series at its own Sharon J. Drysdale Field, this season welcoming Western Illinois, Drake and No. 19 DePaul to the Evanston Regional.

The Wildcats picked up the 2008 NCAA Tournament's No. 11 overall seed, the fourth-straight year they have been one of the nation's seeded squads. Northwestern has not played a Regional or Super Regional game away from Drysdale Field since 2005, going 10-1 at home in the last two years to advance to the WCWS in both 2006 and 2007.

The Evanston Regional begins at noon CT Friday when Drake faces DePaul, followed by Western Illinois taking on Northwestern at 2:30 p.m. CT. The double elimination tournament continues with three games Saturday before All four teams in the Evanston Regional enter on a winning streak after winning their respective conference tournaments. Especially of note is Western Illinois, which had an 8-31 overall record this year before reeling off six-straight victories to not only qualify for, but win the Summit League Tournament title.

Northwestern is coming off a campaign in which it won both the Big Ten regular season and Tournament titles, the first time the Wildcats ever have achieved that feat. The last time NU won the league's regular-season crown, it advanced all the way to the championship finals of the Women's College World Series.

Overall, Northwestern has qualified for the NCAA Tournament in the past six seasons under head coach Kate Drohan, compiling a 22-12 record in that time with a 15-5 mark in the last two years. Since the NCAA Tournament switched to the 16, four-team Regional format in 2005, NU has won its Regional every year.

The Broadcasts
Every game of the Regional will be streamed live on NUsports.com for FREE via All-Access, while Northwestern student radio WNUR 89.3 FM will broadcast all of the Wildcats' games live over their airwaves and online at sports.wnur.org.

For Northwestern's complete game notes for the NCAA Regional, click on the .pdf link at the top of this page. To visit the Evanston Regional Web site, click on the URL at the top of this page.