ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley Softball team is headed to Cleveland Ohio and Case Western Reserve University for the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament where they will be the third seed in the Cleveland Regional.
 
The Dutchmen (29-13) will take on second-seeded Case Western Reserve (28-10) at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday in the second game of the Regional at Mather Park. Top-seeded University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (35-6) will take on fourth-seeded Penn College (25-18) at 11 a.m. in the other first day pairing. The winners of Thursday's games will play on Friday at 11 a.m. with the first elimination game between the non-winning teams to follow at 1:30 p.m.
 
Wisconsin-Whitewater and Case Western Reserve were at-large selections to the field of 64 teams while LVC and Penn College earned conference automatic bids as the Dutchmen won the Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom for the second consecutive year and Penn earned the United East Conference bid after finishing second to Penn State Brandywine who is not yet eligible for NCAA postseason play. In the most recent NFCA Top 25 poll that was released last week, CWRU was ranked 14th while Whitewater was 15th.
 
The Dutchmen are making the program's third consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament after a great season. LVC played eight teams that also qualified for the Tournament including five games during the team's spring break trip to Florida. The Dutchmen have one prior meeting with Case Western Reserve in program history as they defeated the Spartans 11-1 in 2011 during the team's spring break trip to Florida. LVC also earns a 1-0 record against Penn after defeating the Wildcats 1-0 in 2022 during the team's trip to Myrtle Beach. A meeting with the Warhawks of Wisconsin-Whitewater would be the first in program history.
 
Case Western Reserve is a member of the University Athletic Association and finished the year with a 28-10 overall record including a 13-5 mark in conference play. The Spartans and Dutchmen had one common opponent as CWRU dropped a 2-1 decision to Trine at the NFCA Leadoff Classic. The Spartans are coming off winning two of three games against Carnegie Mellon University this past weekend in the final games of the regular season. The UAA does not have a conference tournament.
 
Whitewater is 35-6 and went 12-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Warhawks won the regular season title but fell 1-0 in the WIAC semifinals this past weekend. LVC and Whitewater have one common opponent this season as the Warhawks defeated University of Scranton 11-0 in Florida during the team's spring break trip.
 
Penn College is 28-15 and went 10-6 in United East play. The Wildcats were the fourth seed in their conference tournament where they made a run all the way to the title game before falling 8-7 to Penn State Brandywine on Sunday. Penn and LVC have three common opponents this season with the Wildcats splitting a doubleheader at Messiah, sweeping Lycoming in a doubleheader, and dropping a 6-5 decision to FDU-Florham in Myrtle Beach.
 
The winner of this weekend's regional will advance to the Super Regional round where they will face the winner of the Winona, Minnesota Regional hosted by Saint Mary's University.

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