Western Washington University softball has pulled the top seed in the eight-team NCAA Division II West Regional tournament following its sweep of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament.
The Vikings (42-7), in the same season they hosted their first GNAC tournament, will now host an NCAA tournament game for the first time in program history. The West Regional will run May 9–11 at Viking Field, with four teams attending.
Western’s first game will be against No. 8 Azusa Pacific (30-19) at noon on Thursday, May 9.
Northwest Nazarene (39-10) earned the No. 2 seed and will also host half the tournament. Western beat the Nighthawks twice by a combined score of 8-2 last weekend to earn the GNAC crown for the first time since 2021 — the same year the Vikings last reached the West Regional.
No. 4 Cal State San Marcos (35-20) and No. 5 Cal State East Bay (29-22) will also be making the trip to Bellingham.
Similar to the GNAC tournament, the West Regional is a double-elimination bracket. It follows the same qualification process and schedule, and the winners of each regional tournament advance to the West Super Regional.
The Super Regional, which runs May 15–16, is a best-of-three series and is also hosted at a campus site. The winner of that series advances to the eight-team NCAA Division II Championships May 19–25 at Boombah-Soldiers Creek Park in Longwood, Florida.
Connor J. Benintendi is a former CDN sports reporter, send tips and information to newstips@cascadiadaily.com.
