Softball Southern Conference

Chattanooga To Meet FAU In NCAA Softball Regional

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- The Lady Mocs softball team earned a No. 6 seed in
the 2002 NCAA Tournament and will take on Florida Atlantic University in
the first round of the NCAA Regional, which begins Thursday, May 16, hosted
by Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla. The game time will be
announced later.

Florida Atlantic (60-11) is the champion of the Atlantic Sun Conference and
ranked No. 12 in the last USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association
Division I Top 25. The Lady Owls possesses two of the nation's top pitchers
-- Nikkie Myers (35-6, 0.63 ERA) and Candice Freel (25-5, 1.12 ERA). Myers
also leads the team in hitting at .374 with 12 homers and 40 RBIs.

Chattanooga and FAU have split the four games in their series with UTC
owning a pair of 8-3 wins in 1997 and 2000, and FAU won 4-2 in 2000 and 2-1
last season.

Interestingly, the game pits Lady Mocs' pitching coach Christina Sutcliffe
against her alma mater. Sutcliffe, a 2000 graduate of FAU, played a major
role in Florida Atlantic winning five consecutive Trans America Athletic
Conference championships and helped lead FAU to three NCAA Regional
Tournaments. She was named First-Team All-TAAC for four years, and she was
named MVP of the TAAC Tournament in 1998. She was also named to an
all-academic team from 1998-2001.

Chattanooga (42-13) is making its third consecutive trip to the NCAA
Regionals after winning the Southern Conference Tournament May 6. UTC went
1-2 in both the 2000 and 2001 NCAA Tournaments.

Even though Florida Atlantic is the region's top seed, the
double-elimination event will be hosted by No. 3 seed Florida State. The
rest of the region includes No. 2 seed Alabama against on fifth-seed
Georgia Tech and FSU meets No. 4 seed Auburn.