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TOURNAMENT HOMEPAGE
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida softball program is prepared for NCAA Tournament play this week, starting with Rollins at 1 pm ET on Wednesday on Steel's Diamond at Blazer Park in Valdosta, Georgia.
 
The Argonauts are making their fifth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, a program record.
 
Daily Session Tickets will be $10 for adults and $8 for youth and seniors, while Tournament Passes will be $25 for adults and $15 for youth and seniors. Tournament passes are available by calling 229-333-SEAT (7328), Monday-Friday from 9:30 am to 5 pm ET. Daily Session tickets are not available in advance of the tournament and only will be available the day of the games. Doors will open 90 minutes prior to the first game of each day.
 
The winner of the regional will advance to the NCAA Division II National Championship, scheduled for May 27-31 at The Regency Athletic Complex at MSU Denver in Denver, Colo.
 
IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
UWF is making its 15th trip to the NCAA Tournament this weekend, a total good for the third-most in Gulf South Conference history. The Argonauts' 36 all-time wins in the tournament are also the third-most in conference history, and UWF has had 14 of those wins over the last three NCAA Tournaments.
 
West Florida's 14 NCAA Tournament wins since 2017 are the second-most in the country, behind only Southern Indiana (17), who the Argonauts beat in the 2017 NCAA Championship.
 
A LOOK AT OUR BRACKET
West Florida is familiar with four of the five other teams in the bracket, holding a 6-6 record against Alabama Huntsville, Mississippi College, Auburn Montgomery, and Valdosta State this year.
 
Valdosta State is the only team in this bracket that UWF has faced in the regional since 2017, and the Argonauts are 3-0 against the Lady Blazers in those NCAA Tournament games.
 
UWF's first matchup will be against Rollins, who the Argonauts last saw in 2017 when UWF won 11-10 against the Tars at the Gulf Coast Invitational to start the season.
 
Rollins enters the tournament with a 19-2 record as the winners of the Sunshine State Conference. The Tars have a 0.84 ERA, good for second-best in the country, and have one of the toughest pitching duos in Division II. Ali Shenefield and Ashley Worrell were both named as finalists for the NFCA Player/Pitcher of the Year. Shenefield's 0.73 ERA is the sixth-best in the country, and she has 57 strikeouts over 57.2 innings, and Worrell has allowed opponents to hit just .147.
 
ARGONAUTS LATELY
West Florida has a 12-4 record since the start of April, with series wins over Union, Montevallo, and Lee, and a split against West Georgia. The offense has stayed hot, hitting .309 and slugging .504 while averaging 6.2 runs per game.
 
But the biggest difference has been in the circle. The Argonaut pitching staff has thrown to a 2.11 ERA over the last month and a half, highlighted by several strong outings from all three pitchers. Kelsey Sweatt has a 7-0 record with 62 strikeouts in 47.2 innings, Grace Gilbert has posted a 2.17 ERA over eight appearances, and Montana Young has a 1.86 ERA with 23 strikeouts and just 1 walk over 26.1 innings. 
 
AWARDS TO HAND OUT
Five University of West Florida softball players have been named to the Division II Conference Commissioner's Association All-South Region teams, as announced on Tuesday afternoon.
 
Teala Howard and Courtney McLellan were first team selections, and Jacquelynne Poling, Ally Merrill, and Kelsey Sweatt earned second team nods. Howard, McLellan, Poling, and Sweatt were named to the NFCA All-South Region teams last week, and this is Merrill's first career all-region selection.
 
SLUGGING AWAY
Fans have witnessed one of the most powerful offenses in UWF history this season. The Argonauts have put together a .505 slugging percentage, good for the highest in program history, and have hit 47 home runs, which are the third-most in a single season in UWF history and are the 14th-most in the country.
 
UWF is also 17th in Division II and first in the GSC in doubles (76) -- Courtney McLellan and Ally Merrill are each second in the GSC with 12 doubles.
 
Four Argonauts are slugging .600 or better this season – Jacquelynne Poling (.700), Ally Merrill (.648), Courtney McLellan (.607), and Kara Wilson (.621).
 
The program record for slugging is .476, done by the historic 2005 UWF team that won 60 games and won the GSC Championship. UWF's 47 home runs are the third-most for an Argonaut squad since 1995, behind only the 2005 and 2008 teams that each hit 50.
 
EARNING #100
UWF head coach Ashliegh McLean is in her third season at the helm of the program, and earned her 100th career win on Saturday. With a career 101-34 record, she has a better winning percentage through her first three seasons (.748) than any other current Gulf South Conference coach did in their first three seasons, with the exception of Eric Newell at Auburn Montgomery (.780), who started his tenure in the NAIA.
 
McLean's first two years were noteworthy, to say the least -- she led the team to the NCAA Championship and 54 wins in 2019, before going 17-9 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
 
THE CLASS OF THE GSC
With a 54-16 conference record since 2019, West Florida holds the best winning percentage (.771) in league play among all Gulf South Conference teams. The team's 54 conference wins -- as well as their 101 total wins -- over the past three seasons are the most in the GSC.
 
UWF has gotten production from every part of the lineup. Teala Howard leads the team with a .450 batting average in conference play, and she, Angela Agurkis, Mika Garcia, Kayla Mayo, Courtney McLellan, Ally Merrill, Jacquelynne Poling, Kara Wilson have each hit multiple home runs against the GSC.
 
JACQUELYNNE POLING, SO CLUTCH
Catcher Jacquelynne Poling has kicked into another gear offensively in her senior season. In UWF's last 27 games since March 9, Poling has hit all 8 of her home runs and leads UWF in round-trippers, RBIs (27), slugging (.803), and walks (13).
 
Her eight home runs are a career-high and the most for a UWF catcher since Natalie Manis hit eight in 2005. Additionally, Poling is leading all GSC catchers in slugging (.700) and walks (21), while rankings second among catchers in home runs (8) and doubles (9). The senior has also been one of the toughest catchers to run on, catching 31.6 percent of all baserunners, good for the second-best mark in the conference.
 
THE EXCITING TEALA HOWARD
Third baseman Teala Howard is eighth in the country with 69 hits this year, and she led DII in hits last season. This season, Howard leads the GSC in hits and batting (.448), and she ranks second in the league in runs (50) and stolen bases (27), and she's fourth in total bases (92), as well.
 
Her season so far has led to her being a finalist for the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Player of the Year -- marking the second time in her career she's made the cut.
 
The junior is UWF's all-time batting leader (.466), ranks third in steals (100), and fifth in slugging (.591), and she tied the UWF single-season record for batting in 2019 (.464) as a freshman.
 
She's currently on a 15-game hitting streak and is hitting .519 (28-54) with 21 runs and 11 stolen bases, and she has 10 multi-hit games in that stretch.
 
POWER HITTER KARA WILSON
This season, UWF's senior leads all GSC center fielders in total bases (87), home runs (11), and RBIs (37), and ranks sixth, seventh, and seventh in those categories among all GSC hitters. Her multi-homer game in the series finale at Valdosta was the first of her career and the first for an Argonaut since 2017, and her 11 home runs this season are the most for UWF since 2010, when Shannon Miles hit 12.
 
Wilson's 11th home run of the season came in the sixth inning of the GSC Tournament game against West Georgia last week, tying the game at 3-3.
 
MONTANA YOUNG IS GETTING EVERYONE OUT
Freshman pitcher Montana Young has been impressive in her first season in the Blue and Green, and she's found another gear over the last month. Since April 9, Young has posted a 0.83 ERA over 25.1 innings, with 21 strikeouts and no walks. She was solid for the Argonauts in two relief appearances in last week's GSC Tournament, going a total of 10.1 innings over two games with a 1.35 ERA and 10 strikeouts.
 
She struck out a career-high eight batters in the Tournament game against West Georgia on Thursday.
 
THREE-TIME PITCHER OF THE WEEK KELSEY SWEATT
Pitcher Kelsey Sweatt has been dominant since the start of April, and her best stretch of the year began at Union. Sweatt was named the GSC Pitcher of the Week for the third time this season, after posting a 1.62 ERA and striking out 20 batters over 13 innings against the Lady Bulldogs on the road in that series.
 
Since April 10, Sweatt has a 4-0 record and 40 strikeouts over 30.2 innings, allowing an opponents batting average of just .180. She also has a 1.60 ERA in that time, and she ranks third in the GSC in wins (14), fourth in strikeouts (116), and sixth in opponent batting average (.208) this season. She has three games with 10 or more strikeouts this year, all of which came in April.