UW-L Wins First WIAC Championship in School History; Earns Bid to NCAA III Tournament

For Immediate Release: Sunday, May 3, 2009

Superior, Wis. – The UW-La Crosse softball team earned its first Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) championship in school history with a 2-0 victory over UW-Superior Sunday afternoon at Liebaert Field in the league's tournament championship game. The Eagles improve to 34-10 on the season.

With the win, UW-L clinches an automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Tournament. The brackets will be announced Monday, May 4 at 10 a.m.

It will be the Eagles' first appearance in the NCAA III Tournament since 1986. UW-L went 2-2 in the 1986 regional, its only other appearance in the national tournament.

UW-L scored the only two runs of Sunday's contest in the top of sixth. Rachel Weyer and Jenna Ahnen opened the inning with back-to-back doubles to make it 1-0. Ahnen then advanced to third as Cara Salm reached on a UW-Superior error and Ahnen scored on Katie Keyes' fielder's choice.

Heather Schultz earned the win for the Eagles, pitching 6.0 innings, allowing three hits and one walk with four strikeouts. UW-Superior got the first two runners on base in the bottom of the seventh on singles from Melissa Kunzelman and Jen Parchem. Kaylyn Von Glahn then came in to pitch for UW-L and retired the next three batters to pick up the save. Brooke Bailey had a sacrifice bunt to move Kunzelman and Parchem into scoring position, but Ashlee Olson popped out to shortstop and Brady Rix struck out to end the game.

Weyer finished 3-for-4 at the plate for UW-L with a run scored while Ahnen, Rachel Croak and Keyes each had one hit.

Kally Kucharyski suffered the loss for UW-Superior, going 7.0 innings, allowing six hits, two runs and one walk with one strikeout. The Yellowjackets were held to three hits, one each from Kunzelman, Parchem and Olson.