May 5, 2008

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - The No. 7 Lewis University softball team was selected as the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Great Lakes Region tournament, to be held May 7-10 on the campus of top-seeded Southern Illinois Edwardsville in Edwardsville, Ill. Lewis will face No. 7 West Virginia Wesleyan in the opening round on Wednesday, May 7 at noon.

Lewis (37-16) has earned a NCAA berth for a third consecutive year and the ninth time in program history. Lewis' past NCAA Championship appearances came in 1987, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2007. The Flyers finished as the national runner-up in 2001. Lewis hosted the regional tournament last season.

No. 13 SIUE, the winners of the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), garnered the No. 1 seed for the eight-team, double-elimination regional tournament. SIUE will play its first game Wednesday at 5 p.m. against eighth-seeded West Virginia State (41-14), which won the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) Tournament.

The other first round games Wednesday include No. 3 seed and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) champion Saginaw Valley State (34-15) vs. No. 6 seed Ferris State (30-16) at 9:30 a.m. and No. 4 seed Wayne State (Mich.) (33-16) vs. No. 5 seed Indianapolis (37-26) at 2:30 p.m.

The NCAA Division II Softball Committee selected a total of 64 teams to participate in the 2008 NCAA Division II Softball Regional Championships. Eight teams will participate at each of eight regional sites in double-elimination tournaments to determine the final eight championship participants. Winners of the Regional competitions will advance to the finals to be held in Houston, Texas, at the Division II Spring Sports Festival.

For more information about the regional championship, please visit www.siue.edu/athletic.