BRYANT SOFTBALL HEADED BACK TO NCAA TOURNEY
Bulldogs The No. 5 Seed At NCAA Regional Hosted By LeMoyne

SMITHFIELD, RI - The Bryant University softball team has qualified for the NCAA tournament for the second-straight year as the Bulldogs will travel to Syracuse, N.Y. this week for the 2005 NCAA Northeast Regional.  Bryant qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history in 2004. 

Fresh off its first-ever Northeast-10 Conference Championship this past weekend, the Bulldogs enter the regional as the No. 5 seed and will face Dowling College (32-18), the No. 4 seed, in the tournament's first game on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Dowling captured the title of the NYCAC Conference tournament over the weekend. 

Bryant (29-15), under the direction of fifth-year coach Lisa-Ann Wallace (Westfield St. '87), set a school record for wins in a season with 29. 

The Bulldogs are led by conference player of the year Deidre Kittredge (Worcester, Mass.) who is ranked in 10 of the Northeast-10 Conference statistical categories entering the weekend. The senior is hitting .428 this season with 60 hits and a school record 39 RBIs. 

Sophomore outfielder Lindsay Connor (West Haven, Conn.) leads the conference with a .428 batting average and team-best 68 hits. She hit a blistering .533 in four conference tournament games over the weekend. 

Freshman pitcher Janine Enos (Wareham, Mass.) was named the conference tournament's most outstanding player with two shutout victories and brings a 7-5 record and 2.08 ERA into the tournament. 

Nikki Ingalls (Westford, Mass) is 9-5 with a team-best ERA of 1.86.  Amanda Wilbur (Lakeville, Mass.) comes into the tournament hitting .336 with three home runs and 20 RBIs.  The winner of the double-elimination regional will travel to the NCAA Finals, May 19-23 in Salem, Virginia.

NCAA Regionals at Syracuse, NY (hosted by Le Moyne)
Thursday, May 12
Game 1 - No. 4 Dowling (32-18) vs. No. 5 Bryant (29-15), 9:30 am
Game 2 - No. 3 Le Moyne (37-8) vs. No. 6 New Haven (29-15), 12 pm
Game 3 - No. 1 C.W. Post (37-11) vs. winner of Game 1
Game 4 - No. 2 Caldwell (39-9) vs. winner of Game 2
Friday, May 13
Game 5 -  loser of game 1 vs. loser of game 4, 9:30 am
Game 6 - loser of game 2 vs. loser of game 6, 12 pm
Game 7 - winner of game 5 vs. winner of game 4, 2:30 pm
Game 8 - winner of game 5 vs. winner of game 6, 5 pm
Saturday, May 14
Game 9 - loser of game 7 vs. winner of game 8, 12 pm
Game 10 - winner of game 7 vs. winner of game 9, 2:30 pm
Sunday, May 15
Game 11 - winner of game 7 vs. winner of game 9, 12 pm (if necessary).