64 // VARSITY May 15, 2014
Badgers return to Eugene
for NCAA regional
UW will play Albany on Friday in its first game
T
he 2014 postseason
schedule has been an
eerily familiar one for
the Wisconsin softball team,
which prepares for an NCAA
regional game on Friday at 4
p.m. (CT) against Albany (30-
10) in the Eugene Regional
hosted by Oregon.
The Badgers (34-18) fin-
ished the regular season with
33 wins and a 15-7 conference
record, earning the No. 4 seed
in the Big Ten tournament for
the second-straight year.
UW met five seed North-
western in a rematch of a
2013 conference quarterfinal
game, and the Badgers won,
5-4, thanks to a five-run third
inning.
In the tournament semi-
finals, Wisconsin faced Michi-
gan for the second year in a
row, losing a heartbreaker, 4-3, in walk-
off fashion.
Despite coming up short in defending
its Big Ten tournament championship,
the Badgers had already done enough to
earn a spot in the NCAA tournament ― a
place the team has been before.
"Going into the Big Ten Tournament,"
UW head coach Yvette Healy explained,
"we said it was déjà vu all over again,
getting the four seed and then matching
up with Northwestern again. The déjà vu
just continues. We're going back to Or-
egon."
This season's NCAA regional does have
its differences, though. For starters, host
Oregon is ranked No. 1 in the country ―
two notches higher than its ranking dur-
ing the 2013 Eugene Regional. But even
in the wake of a program-best campaign
last season, UW may be even more pre-
pared in 2014 to face off with one of the
best teams in the country.
Of its 52 games played, Wisconsin has
played 18 (or about 35 percent of them)
against ranked teams, so the Badgers are
no stranger to tough opponents.
"I'm glad how the schedule worked
out," Healy explained. "And for how good
the Big Ten is, I think that's probably
what prepared us the most. I don't know
if there's any other way to get prepared
than to play the best teams in your con-
ference and in the country. If you had
to go face the No. 1, you might as well
schedule that way."
SCHEDULE (34-18, 15-7)
LAST WEEK
Friday Northwestern W, 5-4
Saturday #10 Michigan L, 4-3
UP NEXT
Friday Albany 4 p.m. CT
INSIDE
SOFTBALL
BY CHRISTIAN BLATNER @BADGERSOFTBALL
