For the first time since 2016, the UCF softball team is headed to the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
The NCAA Division I Softball committee announced Sunday the 64-team field that will compete in the 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament, and the Knights (39-17-1) will head to Tallahassee to take on Auburn (27-22) to begin the tournament on Friday, May 21 at 2 p.m. The game will air on ESPN2.<\/p>\n
If the Knights win, they will move on to play the winner of Florida State\/Kennesaw State. The winner of the Tallahassee Regional will move on to face the winner of the Baton Rouge Regional, which features overall seventh seed LSU, McNeese State, George Washington and Louisiana Lafayette.<\/p>\n
With this year’s at-large bid to the postseason, 2021 will mark UCF’s eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament in its 20-year history.<\/p>\n
“It’s so exciting [to be selected to the NCAA Tournament],” says head coach Cindy Ball-Malone. “This was something that we set out to do last year, and to see it come through and to be able to live it out now, there are really no words to describe it. I’m really proud of this group. This has been a grind and a tough year, so to be able to get back into the postseason is awesome.”<\/p>\n
“This has been a grind and a tough year, so to be able to get back into the postseason is awesome.” \u2014 Cindy Ball-Malone, head coach<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Knights are coming off a weekend that saw them go 2-1 in the American Athletic Conference Championship Tournament, including wins over ECU and South Florida, before falling to No. 25 Wichita State in the championship game. It was the Knights’ third AAC Tournament championship appearance in program history (2014, 2015 and 2021).<\/p>\n
The Knights’ 39 wins as of May 16 are the most wins UCF has posted in a season since 2015. The Black and Gold also have three wins over top-five ranked teams in the country to this point in the season, besting then-No. 5 Florida twice and No. 2 Arizona.<\/p>\n
The softball team is the seventh Knights squad to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament during 2020-21, joining the women\u2019s golf<\/a>, women\u2019s basketball<\/a>,\u00a0volleyball<\/a>,\u00a0men\u2019s soccer<\/a>,\u00a0men\u2019s tennis and women\u2019s tennis teams<\/a>. Additionally, the football team made its fifth consecutive postseason bowl appearance<\/a>\u00a0at the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Knights will play Auburn to kick off the NCAA Tournament in Tallahassee on May 21 on ESPN2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":120140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[4857],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-120137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ucf-athletics"],"yoast_head":"\n
UCF Softball Selected to NCAA Tournament | University of Central Florida News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Knights will play Auburn to kick off the NCAA Tournament in Tallahassee on May 21 on ESPN2.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF Softball Selected to NCAA Tournament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Knights will play Auburn to kick off the NCAA Tournament in Tallahassee on May 21 on ESPN2.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-17T14:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2021\/05\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jenna Lee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jenna Lee\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jenna Lee\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63\"},\"headline\":\"UCF Softball Selected to NCAA Tournament\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-17T14:00:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":394,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2021\\\/05\\\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"UCF Athletics\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2021\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/\",\"name\":\"UCF Softball Selected to NCAA Tournament | University of Central Florida News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2021\\\/05\\\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-17T14:00:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63\"},\"description\":\"The Knights will play Auburn to kick off the NCAA Tournament in Tallahassee on May 21 on ESPN2.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2021\\\/05\\\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2021\\\/05\\\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"With this year\u2019s at-large bid to the postseason, 2021 will mark UCF\u2019s eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament in its 20-year history.(Photo courtesy of Conor Kvatek, UCF Athletics)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UCF Softball Selected to NCAA Tournament\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\",\"description\":\"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63\",\"name\":\"Jenna Lee\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jenna Lee\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/je222296\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\\\/#local-main-organization-logo\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"caption\":\"University of Central Florida\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UCF Softball Selected to NCAA Tournament | University of Central Florida News","description":"The Knights will play Auburn to kick off the NCAA Tournament in Tallahassee on May 21 on ESPN2.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UCF Softball Selected to NCAA Tournament","og_description":"The Knights will play Auburn to kick off the NCAA Tournament in Tallahassee on May 21 on ESPN2.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/","og_site_name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF","article_published_time":"2021-05-17T14:00:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2021\/05\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jenna Lee","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UCF","twitter_site":"@UCF","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jenna Lee","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/"},"author":{"name":"Jenna Lee","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63"},"headline":"UCF Softball Selected to NCAA Tournament","datePublished":"2021-05-17T14:00:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/"},"wordCount":394,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2021\/05\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament.jpg","keywords":["UCF Athletics"],"articleSection":["Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2021","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/","name":"UCF Softball Selected to NCAA Tournament | University of Central Florida News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2021\/05\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament.jpg","datePublished":"2021-05-17T14:00:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63"},"description":"The Knights will play Auburn to kick off the NCAA Tournament in Tallahassee on May 21 on ESPN2.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2021\/05\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2021\/05\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"With this year\u2019s at-large bid to the postseason, 2021 will mark UCF\u2019s eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament in its 20-year history.(Photo courtesy of Conor Kvatek, UCF Athletics)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UCF Softball Selected to NCAA Tournament"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","description":"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63","name":"Jenna Lee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jenna Lee"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/je222296\/"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-softball-selected-to-ncaa-tournament\/#local-main-organization-logo","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"University of Central Florida"}]}},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2021\/05\/ucf-softball-kvatek-tournament-300x200.jpg","primary_category":26,"primary_tag":4857,"author_byline":"UCF Athletics","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120141,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120137\/revisions\/120141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120137"},{"taxonomy":"tu_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tu_author?post=120137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}