Monks' Softball Awarded #6 Seed in NCAA Regional

STANDISH, ME – Saint Joseph's College (35-8, 21-3 GNAC) will face off against Endicott College (35-6, 23-1 TCCC) in the opening round of the 2011 NCAA DIII Softball Championship Tournament on Thursday, May 12th.

The sixth-seeded Monks take on the #3 Gulls at 2:00 PM at the Dayna A. Bazar Softball Facility on the campus of Rhode Island College, the host institution for the New England Regional, on Thursday.

St. Joe's defeated Rivier College, 5-4, in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship game on Sunday, May 1st to collect the team's first NCAA Tournament berth. Endicott topped Western New England College, 7-2, in The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) finale on Saturday, May 7th and will appear in the NCAA's for the ninth consecutive season with the TCCC automatic berth.

The double-elimination tourney begins Thursday with four contests and concludes on Sunday with the championship game at 2:00 PM. The if-necessary title game would be played on Monday at 10:00 AM.

Top-seeded Eastern Connecticut, the 2011 Little East Conference (LEC) Champions, will take on #8 Husson University, the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) champs, at 10:00 AM on Thursday. #4 Rhode Island College, which received an at-large bid, will face #5 Worcester State, the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) winners, at 12:00 PM. Second-seeded Coast Guard Academy, the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) winners, will take on #7 Lesley College, the 2011 New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) champs, at 4:00 PM.

Primary criteria for tournament seeding includes winning percentage against regional opponents, in-region strength of schedule, in-region head to head competition, in-region results versus common region opponents and in-region results versus regionally-ranked teams.

Secondary criteria includes out of region head to head completion, overall DIII winning percentage, results versus common non-DIII opponents, results versus all DIII ranked teams, overall winning percentage, results versus all common opponents and overall DIII strength of schedule.