May 15, 2005
ORLANDO, Fla. - The UCF softball (46-27-1) team found out they will be traveling to Gainesville, Fla. for the 2005 NCAA Regional Tournament. The Golden Knights will face the University of South Florida (40-25) in the first round on Friday at 1 p.m.
The NCAA Regional bid marks the first in program history at UCF. The Golden Knights received the Atlantic Sun's automatic bid by coming out of the loser's bracket and defeating Troy in two games on Saturday.
"We are a little surprised that there are four Florida schools in this region," said UCF head coach Renee Luers-Gillispie. "We are excited to represent UCF in the NCAA Tournament no matter who we face."
The NCAA has changed the format of the tournament this year to a regional, super regional format similar to the NCAA baseball championships. A four-team, six game double elimination format will be played between UCF, USF, Bethune-Cookman (47-17) and Florida (41-21) at the Florida Softball Stadium May 20-22. The winner of the Gainesville regional will play the winner of the Austin regional in a three-game super regional on May 27-28. The Austin regional consists of No. 4 seeded Texas, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Massachusetts and Mississippi State.
The Golden Knights have faced all three of the teams in Gainesville regional this season. The Black and Gold opened the season splitting with Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach, Fla. The following weekend, UCF took on Florida in the championship game of the Clearwater Invitational where the Gators won, 6-1. The Knights took on USF twice this season with the Bulls winning both games, 6-1 and 5-3.
NCAA Regional Schedule Friday, May 20 Game 1-USF vs. UCF, 1 p.m. Game 2-Florida vs. Bethune-Cookman, 3:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 21 Game 3-Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner Game 4-Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser Game 5-Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner
Sunday, May 22 Game 6-Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner Game 7-Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner (if necessary)