ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley softball team will go west to Ohio for the second consecutive year as the Dutchmen will play in the Alliance, Ohio Regional this weekend at the University of Mount Union. LVC will be the fourth seed in the regional and will face the host Purple Raiders on Thursday, May 14, in the opening game of the tournament.
 
The Dutchmen qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year after winning the program's third consecutive Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom title. They will take on top-seeded Mount Union at 11 a.m. on Thursday at the 23rd Street Softball Field in the first game of the day. The Raiders qualified as an at-large bid after being upset by Capital University in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Semifinal. Second-seeded Christopher Newport University and third-seeded Penn College will face each other in the other game of the day at 1:30 p.m. CNU also earned an at-large bid after it won the Coast-to-Coast (C2C) Athletic Conference Championship. Penn College is in the same regional as the Dutchmen for the second straight year after LVC eliminated the Wildcats from the Cleveland Regional last season. The Wildcats were awarded the United East Conference's automatic bid after falling to Penn State Brandywine in the championship for the second consecutive year. Brandywine is not yet eligible for NCAA postseason play.
 
Lebanon Valley enters the weekend on a seven-game winning streak and is coming off a 14-0 victory over Misericordia University in the MAC Freedom Championship. The Dutchmen are 26-15 overall with a resume that includes games against six teams that also qualified for the NCAA Championships. LVC went 3-5 in those eight games, including defeating Swarthmore College on the final day of the spring break trip to Florida. The Dutchmen have one prior meeting with Mount Union, a 9-1 victory over the Purple Raiders on the team's last day of the spring break trip to Florida in 2018. They also have one prior meeting with Christopher Newport, an 8-0 defeat during the team's spring break trip in 2000. LVC is 2-0 all-time against Penn after defeating the Wildcats 5-1 last year at Case Western Reserve University.
 
Mount Union enters the weekend as the top seed with a 29-6 record. The Raiders are ranked 12th in the most recent NFCA Top 25 poll that was released this week. Mount Union was on a 12-game winning streak and went 15-1 in OAC play before being upset by Capital in the conference tournament. They are also playing in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year. They have played 10 teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament, recording 13 wins and two losses in 15 games.
 
Christopher Newport is 28-11 this season, playing a schedule that featured eight games against five teams that also qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The Captains went 4-4 in those games that all occurred early in the season. CNU won its third consecutive C2C title and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the 19th consecutive year. They are coming off an 8-1 victory over the University of Mary Washington in the Championship game after ending the regular season with three wins in four games against the Eagles and Salisbury University.
 
Penn College is playing in its third consecutive NCAA Tournament as the United East representative. The Wildcats are 33-7 but have not played any team that has also qualified for the NCAA Championships. They are coming off a 3-2 defeat to top-seeded Penn State Brandywine in the conference championship game after going 14-2 in conference play. Four of their seven losses this season have been to Brandywine.
 
The winner of this weekend's regional will advance to the Super Regional round, where they will face the winner of the Worcester, Massachusetts Regional hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Stay Connected
Be sure to follow @lvcathletics on Instagram, X, and Facebook for the most in-depth coverage of LVC Athletics.