Softball Finishes #24 In 2004 NFCA Final Top 25 Poll
06/02/2004 | 12:00:00 | Softball
June 2, 2004
By Lou Antoine
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - They say what goes around, comes around. And for the SIU softball team it did come around. Following its second consecutive strong showing at the NCAA Tournament, Southern Illinois has added to its two-year run of unprecedented success, earning its second straight National Fastpitch Coaching Association (NFCA) Top 25 Final Poll ranking, when the Salukis were selected #24 on Wednesday. SIU began the season with its first-ever preseason ranking at #24 on January 28, in the first 2004 NFCA Top 25 Poll.
The Salukis also earned four votes (would be #31) in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, which placed SIU behind #21 Fresno State and Pacific (18 votes, #26), both of whom SIU beat in the NCAA Region VII Tournament.
Southern Illinois finished third at the NCAA Region VII Tournament with a 3-2 record, the second straight year SIU won three games at the NCAA Tournament. The Salukis made their first back-to-back NCAA appearances, and just fell short of a fourth win, losing a 1-0, 12-inning game to Hofstra, who finished second to top-seeded Stanford in the Region VII Tournament. SIU is 6-4 under head coach Kerri Blaylock the last two years, and 6-6 overall in school history (0-2 in 1991).
The Dawgs finished with a school-record 45 wins (45-17) in 2004, breaking the old mark of the 1991 squad (42-7). Last season, the Salukis landed their highest rankings in school history, finishing #22 and #23 in the final 2003 NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 polls respectively. Southern Illinois earned its first Top 25 ranking in school history at #25 in the NFCA poll on April 29, 2003. The 2003 run of 13 weeks in the NFCA poll was the longest run in a national poll in school history.