BRACKET

(DSC, May 3) – On Sunday Dixie State's softball team made history without playing a game. The Red Storm, runners-up in the Pacific West Conference, received a bid to host the NCAA Division II West Regional tournament. The tournament will be one of two West region sites to be played on May 8-10. Winners from the two sites will advance to the NCAA Division II Super Regionals the following week.
The national championship tournament will be in Salem, Va., May 21-25. 

No. 3 seeded Dixie State (36-10) will play on Friday at 3:30 PM (MST) against CCAA conference tournament champion No. 6 Cal State Monterey Bay (36-25). No. 2 Hawaii Pacific (35-9) will open up at 1 PM against No. 7 UC San Diego (29-21). Humboldt State University (34-17) awarded as the No. 1 seed and the other West Region host. Hawaii Pacific moved up to No. 2 in the West with Cal State Stanislaus coming in as the No. 4 seed.Montana State Billings, Cal State Monterey Bay, UC San Diego and Sonoma State round out the final eight spots awarded. 

Each regional will feature two four-team pods playing double-elimination with the winners advancing to the Super Regionals for a best-of-three series. 

Last year Humboldt State, Calif., came out of the West Region to win the national championship. 

Dixie State is in its third year of membership in NCAA Division II. 

It is in its first year of eligibility for postseason play. The softball team is the first to host and the second team in school history, just a week behind the golf team, to receive an invitation to NCAA postseason play. 

The first round of the tournament features 64 teams. Division II softball competition started with 247 teams this spring. 

Leading the Red Storm's offense are Haley Schumers (Plain City. UT/Freemont High School), Bailie Hicken (Cedar Hills. UT/Lone Peak High School) , Kelsey Mendenhall (Tooele. UT/Tooele High School) and Dabney McIntyre (Taylorsville. UT/Taylorsville High School). “I came here for two years and expected to go somewhere else after that,” said McIntyre, one of three seniors on the team. She went to NJCAA nationals in Florida her freshman year, but suffered a serious knee injury and redshirted her sophomore season. 

As a result, she had the opportunity to stay when Dixie State made the transition into the NCAA. “You always want to be optimistic,” McIntyre said. “We came in here this season with a possibility to go on. “When we were in junior college we always knew where the regionals and nationals were,” she continued. “The wait and anticipation is surreal.” 

Team members gathered at the softball clubhouse for the official announcement via the Internet. “I'm not overly nervous, but I'm excited,” said Jessie Kaonohi (Lancaster. CA/Antelope Valley High School), another of the seniors. “I always hoped my senior year we'd be where we are. It's fun to see it happening.” 

Schumers (Plain City, Utah/Fremont) is batting .412 with six home runs and 42 runs batted in. She also has a 7-2 pitching record with a 2.43 earned run average. Hicken (Cedar Hills, Utah/Lone Peak) is batting .403 with no home runs and 7 runs batted in. 

Mendenhall (Tooele, Utah\Tooele) is hitting .396 with five home runs and 29 RBI. McIntyre (Taylorsville, Utah/Taylorsville is batting .385 with five home runs and 30 RBI. 

Breanna Egge (Las Vegas. NV/Centennial High School) (Las Vegas, Nev./Centennial) is the team's home run leader with eight. She has 31 runs batted in. Kaonihi (Lancaster, Calif./Antelope Valley) has a 5-2 record with a 1.80 ERA to lead the pitching staff. 

Lauren Folta (Erda. UT/Tooele High School) (Tooele, Utah/Tooele) is 11-3 with a 1.90 ERA and Brittnie Whipple (Moab, Utah/Grand County) is 13-2 with a 1.94 earned run average.