 The selection committee for the National Invitational Softball Championships has announced the 17-team field for the 2018 NISC. This marks the second year of the tournament, which features eight teams that have won 30 games or more during the 2018 season and six teams that finished second or better during the regular season in their respective conferences. First-round regional action begins Wednesday, May 16 – regional hosts are Northern Colorado, UNLV, Eastern Kentucky and Central Arkansas. Each double-elimination regional concludes play on either Friday, May 18 or Saturday, May 19. The Championship round, also double-elimination, is slated to begin Wednesday, May 23 at a host site to be determined. 
Here’s the list of qualifiers for the NISC:
Austin Peay (Ohio Valley) – At Large Central Arkansas (Southland) – At Large Colorado State (Mountain West) – At Large Eastern Kentucky (Ohio Valley) – Automatic Qualifier Loyola Marymount (West Coast Conference) – Automatic Qualifier Nevada (Mountain West) – At Large Northern Colorado (Big Sky) – At Large Stephen F. Austin (Southland) – Automatic Qualifier South Dakota State (Summit League) – Automatic Qualifier Texas Tech (Big 12) – Automatic Qualifier Toledo (Mid-America) – Automatic Qualifier Towson (Colonial Athletic) – Automatic Qualifier UC Riverside (Big West) – Automatic Qualifier UNLV (Mountain West) – At Large UT Arlington (Sun Belt) – Automatic Qualifier Utah Valley (WAC) – Automatic Qualifier Weber State (Big Sky) – Automatic Qualifier Each of the 12 automatic qualifiers are the teams who finished the best regular-season record in their respective conference and are not playing in the NCAA Tournament. The five at large selections were selected off their body of work. Teams are selected to regions based on travel considerations first and then seeded by NCAA RPI (as of May 13). “We’re thrilled to be offering this event for a second consecutive year,” said Tournament Director Dave King. “We’ve already seen programs receive a significant boost by playing in the NISC last year. With the depth of talent this year, we’re looking forward to seeing this year’s programs play meaningful postseason games and continue their momentum into next season.” Here are the matchups for the first round, the Northern Colorado, UNLV and Central Arkansas regions begin play on Wednesday, May 16, while the Eastern Kentucky region will start on Thursday, May 17 (all times Eastern). Home team listed second; based on RPI. Region 1: Greeley, CO (Northern Colorado Hosts) South Dakota State (32-16) at Colorado State (26-21), 5 p.m. ET Northern Colorado (28-26) at Loyola Marymount (28-23-1), 8 p.m. ET Region 2: Las Vegas, NV (UNLV Hosts) Utah Valley (21-29) at Weber State (27-24), 3 p.m. ET Nevada (25-25) at UC Riverside (33-22), 6 p.m. ET Weber State/Utah Valley at UNLV (31-18), 9 p.m. ET Region 3: Richmond, KY (Eastern Kentucky Hosts) Towson (40-17) at Austin Peay (39-17), 3 p.m. ET Toledo (34-21) at Eastern Kentucky (40-18), 6 p.m. ET Region 4: Conway, AR (Central Arkansas Hosts) Stephen F. Austin (31-22) at Texas Tech (29-26), 4 p.m. ET Central Arkansas (28-25) at UT Arlington (27-26), 7 p.m. ET About Triple Crown Sports Based in Fort Collins, CO., Triple Crown Sports has been producing college and youth events for more than 30 years. TCS runs both the preseason and postseason WNIT basketball events and produces the men’s and women’s Cancun Challenge tournaments in November. Triple Crown is also powering another “WNIT” concept event in D-I volleyball (NIVC), which debuted in 2017. TCS youth fastpitch tournaments (including the 900-team Sparkler/Fireworks event) draw the nation’s finest club programs, and hundreds of college coaches attend TCS events for recruiting purposes. |
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