Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Softball Ranked in Midwest Region
03/29/2002 | 12:00:00 | Softball
March 29, 2002
Indianapolis, Ind. - Southern Illinois (18-8, 5-0) was ranked among 10 teams in the Midwest Region as the NCAA Division I Women's Softball Committee has released this week's Division I women's softball biweekly regional poll.
SIU stands as the only Valley school in the Midwest Regional poll which consists of teams from the Big 12, Missouri Valley, Sun Belt and Southland Conferences. Also joining the Salukis in the Midwest are Baylor, Florida International, Louisiana-Lafayette, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Southwest Texas State, Texas and Texas A&M. The Dawgs faced both Florida International and Nebraska earlier this season.
"I am very happy right now that this has occurred, but this is a season that lasts four months and we've only played two," said head coach Kerri Blaylock about the good news. "We are the only team in the Valley ranked and we are proud of that, especially after having been picked fifth in this year's conference preseason poll."
The first and second rankings will rank 10 teams in each region alphabetically. For the third, fourth and fifth rankings, teams will be ranked from 1-10. In addition, a team with a record below .500 may be ranked during the first ranking, the ranking must be above .500 on all subsequent rankings.
In all three years under Blaylock, the Salukis have been regionally ranked at some point throughout the season.
