Softball Headed to Seguin, Texas for NCAA Regional

2021 NCAA Division III Softball Regional Tournament Brackets (PDF)

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. - The Bridgewater State University softball team will begin NCAA Division III Tournament play on Friday (May 21) at 1:30 PM (CDT) as the Bears will compete at a six-team regional hosted by defending Division III champion Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. The Bears are the number five seed in the regional and will take on second-seeded Emory & Henry College.

This past weekend, Bridgewater won the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Championship Series, two games to one, over regular season champion Framingham State University. The Bears captured the MASCAC crown for the first time since 2014 and tenth time overall. By virtue of the conference postseason title, Bridgewater received the league's automatic berth into the NCAAs. Head coach Lindsey Couturier's team is 17-9-1 overall, including a 6-3-1 finish in MASCAC regular season play.

The Bears are competing in the NCAAs for the first time since 2014 and 23rd time in program history.

The Emory & Henry softball team is making the program's third NCAA Tournament appearance in the past five years. The Wasps carry a 26-7 record into national tournament play after finishing second in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference regular season (13-3) and as a semifinalist in the ODAC Tournament. Emory & Henry was ranked fourth in the final NCAA Division III Atlantic Region poll. 

The 2021 NCAA Division III Softball Tournament field of 48 teams will be split into eight regionals with six teams at each site. Tournament action for the Seguin Regional will begin on Friday, May 21 continuing through Sunday, May 23 at Texas Lutheran's Kruse Stadium - Morck Softball Field.

Joining BSU and Emory & Henry in the double-elimination Seguin Regional are #1 seed Texas Lutheran (28-4), #3 Christopher Newport University (28-12), #4 Emmanuel College (20-4), and #6 Cedar Crest College (17-3). Four of the six teams captured their respective conference tournament titles to earn the automatic qualifier to the national tournament. Along with Bridgewater State's MASCAC championship, Texas Lutheran captured the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) crown, while Emmanuel won the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) title and Cedar Crest grabbed top honors at the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Tournament.

All told, forty-one conferences received an automatic qualification (Pool A) to the 2021 NCAA Division III Tournament. One institution (Brandeis University) was selected from Pool B, which includes independent institutions and schools from conferences that do not meet the automatic qualification criteria. The six remaining teams, including Emory & Henry and Christopher Newport, were selected on an at-large basis from automatic qualifying conferences and the remaining institutions in Pool B.