SPRINGFIELD – The Missouri State softball team (27-18) will open its seventh NCAA Tournament appearance in the Columbia Regional against No. 15 national seed Missouri (36-20) on Friday, May 20 at 1:00 p.m.
The other teams in the Columbia Regional include Arizona (33-20) and Illinois (34-20).
The winner of the Regional will advance to the Super Regionals, which take place May 26-29.
Missouri State finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season with an 18-7 record, before defeating Northern Iowa 10-4 in the MVC Tournament to secure its seventh conference tournament title and secure the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
This marks MSU’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2011, which was also the last time the Bears hosted and won the MVC Tournament. In their last tournament appearance, the Bears were part of the Norman Regional where they came in third place.
Missouri State is 15-38 all-time against Missouri. In Columbia, the Bears own a 3-14 ledger. MSU has never met with Arizona or Illinois.
All games will be available on the ESPN family of networks.
Once ticket information is available, it will be distributed on MissouriStateBears.com, as well as MSU Softball and MSU Athletics social media platforms.
