NCAA Division III Softball Tournament Bracket |  Championship Central

North Adams, MA- The official NCAA Division III Softball tournament bracket was released this morning on NCAA.com and the MCLA Trailblazers, champions of the MASCAC, won't have to travel very far for their opening round contest.  The Trailblazers (15-20) drew regional host Williams College (30-6) in the opening round which begins on Friday afternoon in Williamstown.

The Trailblazers are in the NCAA field for the first time since 1995 after sweeping through the MASCAC Championships.  MCLA is led by first year head coach Jamie Trudeau, who is excited about the draw for the Trailblazers.

"Drawing Williams will be a great opportunity for our program.  Williams is a great team with strong pitching and some dangerous hitters," Trudeau said about the matchup.  The two teams met just seven days ago with the Ephs earning the sweep by scores of 8-3 and 5-0 in North Adams.

Regardless of opponent, Trudeau feels confident that her team is ready to play.  "Our program has shown great resiliency over the last three days and we know what it will take to get it done.  It's not how you start, but its how you finish," Trudeau went on to say.

The regional round will be held May 8-10. Four teams will compete at 14 regional sites and three teams will compete at two regional sites. The team advancing from each regional will compete in the super regional round May 15 and 16. The finals, hosted by the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the City of Salem, will be held May 21-26 at Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Virginia. All rounds will use a double-elimination format.

Forty-two conferences received automatic qualification (Pool A). Two institutions were selected from Pool B, which includes independent institutions and institutions from conferences that do not meet the automatic qualification criteria. The 18 remaining teams were selected on an at-large basis from automatic qualifying conferences and the remaining institutions in Pool B.

In 2014, Tufts defeated Salisbury twice in the championship series to win its second consecutive NCAA softball championship.

Courtesy of MCLA Sports Information