Oklahoma City, OK - - Oregon enters post-season as the No. 1 team in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll
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OKLAHOMA CITY — Just two days after securing the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship, Oregon (47-6) enters the post-season as the No. 1 team in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll USA Softball announced today. Capturing five-of-20 first-place votes, the Ducks are just nine points ahead of No. 2 Florida (50-6), who captured nine first-place votes. No. 3 Minnesota (54-3) captured five first-place votes while No. 5 Arizona (48-7) garnered the remaining first-place vote. This marks the final ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll until the conclusion of the NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS), which will be held June 1-7 at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium – OGE Energy Field.
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Click here to see the complete ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll
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Oregon enters the post-season following a Pac-12 Conference series sweep over Stanford on the road. With the Ducks outscoring the Cardinal 26-2 in their three-game series to end the regular season, they now look ahead to a No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship. This is the eighth straight season the Ducks have advanced to the NCAA Tournament, where they will host the Eugene Regional starting on Friday. Coming in at No. 2 is Florida, who suffered a Southeastern Conference (SEC) Tournament opening loss at the hands of then-No. 18 Ole Miss (40-18). Despite the loss, the Gators enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed for the third-consecutive season and will host the Gainesville Regional beginning on Friday.
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Minnesota remains the No. 3 team in the country this week after capturing the program’s second-straight Big Ten Tournament Championship. Picking up a 5-1 win over Northwestern in the tournament opener, the Gophers advanced to the Championship Game after posting a 6-5 win over Illinois before a 6-0 shutout over then-T24 Ohio State (35-16). With the Big Ten Tournament Championship win, Minnesota earned a berth into the NCAA Tournament and will head to Tuscaloosa, Ala. This marks the fifth-straight season that the Gophers have made the NCAA Tournament, and they will open the Tuscaloosa Regional on Friday.
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No. 4 Florida State (51-6-1) also maintains their ranking in the Top 25 Poll after capturing their fourth-straight Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship over the weekend. Allowing just three runs to cross the plate throughout the Championship, the Seminoles opened the tournament with a 16-0 (five inning) shutout over Virginia. A 6-0 shutout over Notre Dame earned Florida State a spot in the Championship Game, where they took home the title after a 4-3 win over North Carolina. Florida State will enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 4 overall seed, hosting the Tallahassee Regional beginning on Friday. No. 5 Arizona received the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament after earning the Pac-12 Conference Championship. The Wildcats will host the Tucson Regional beginning on Friday, which marks 31-consecutive seasons that Arizona will participate in post-season play.
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Rounding out the Top 10: Oklahoma (50-8) stands pat at No. 6 after shutting out opponents throughout the Big 12 Conference Championship; No. 7 Washington (43-11) rose two spots after sweeping then-No. 14 Utah (33-14) on the road; Tied at No. 8 are Auburn (46-10), who went 1-1 at the SEC Tournament, and UCLA (42-13), who swept then-No. 22 Arizona State (30-20) on the road; Tennessee (44-10) fell three spots to No. 10 after dropping their SEC Tournament opening game to then-21 LSU (41-18).
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New to the Top 25 this week is T25 USC Upstate (44-11), who captured their third-straight ASUN Softball Championship. Dropping out of the Top 25 is last week’s T24 Marshall (41-10), who went 1-2 at the Conference USA Tournament in Hattiesburg, Miss.
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The ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll is voted on by coaching representatives of 10 Division I Conferences in the 10 USA Softball Regions as well as members of the National and Local media who consistently cover Division I Softball across the country.
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About USA Softball
USA Softball is a 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization headquartered in Oklahoma City, Okla., and is designated as the National Governing Body (NGB) of Softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. One of the nation’s largest sports organizations, USA Softball sanctions competition in every state through a network of 70 local associations and has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 150,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than 2 million.  USA Softball is dedicated to providing people of all ages the opportunity to play the game they love at a variety of levels by offering recreational, league, tournament and competitive play for fast pitch, slow pitch and modified pitch. USA Softball annually conducts thousands of tournaments throughout the country including over 100 National Championships.  The USA Softball umpire program is among the nation’s largest and are widely known as the best trained umpires in the game.
As the NGB for the sport of softball, USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting the six USA Softball National Teams that compete in events such as the Olympics, Pan American Games, World Championships and other international and domestic events. For more information on USA Softball, including its founding and history as the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA), please visit, www.USASoftball.com.
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About the NCAA Women’s College World SeriesÂ
USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium – OGE Energy Field serves as the home to the NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS). For the 27th year, the top eight college teams in the nation will head to Oklahoma City and compete for a national championship. Last year, over 78,000 fans attended the WCWS. Be there to Share The Experience with softball fans from across the country June 1-7  in Oklahoma City. Tickets for the 2017 NCAA WCWS are on sale now, click here to purchase your tickets and secure your championship experience!
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Codi Warren I Managing Director of Communications
USA Softball
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Visit Us Online: USASoftball.com
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