IRVINE, Calif. - After successfully defending their regular season title and emerging as the PacWest Conference Tournament champions for the second straight year, the Concordia University Irvine softball team secured the No. 3 seed in the upcoming NCAA DII West Regional playoffs.
 
CUI learned Monday that No. 2 seed Northwest Nazarene will host them this week in their side of the bracket along with No. 6 seed Cal State Dominguez Hills and No. 7 seed Saint Martin's.
 
CUI will travel to the Boise, Idaho area for this double elimination tournament.
 
All four teams play once this Thursday, May 9 in Nampa, Idaho on the campus of Northwest Nazarene. CUI will first play No. 6 seed Cal State Dominguez Hills that day.
 
The winning teams on Thursday will play each other on Friday and avoid playing in the first elimination game that day. The two squads with one loss after their first two games play another elimination game later that night. 
 
The two surviving teams face off Saturday for the chance to advance to next Tuesday's Super Regional.

CLICK HERE for the updated CUI softball schedule

CUI went 2-2 against nationally-ranked Northwest Nazarene. CSUDH beat the Green and Gold twice in a non-conference doubleheader and CUI did not face Saint Martin's this regular season.
 
On the other side of the West Regional bracket are No. 1 seed and host Western Washington, No. 4 seed Cal State San Marcos, No. 5 seed Cal State East Bay and No. 8 seed Azusa Pacific.
 
This marks the first time in the NCAA DII era that the CUI softball team is taking its show on the road. In previous years, CUI has hosted the regional playoffs.

The Golden Eagles are 39-12 overall and went an impressive 24-4 to clinch their fifth consecutive PacWest regular season title. CUI has now finished in first place a whopping six straight times (counting the shortened 2021 season) and have won both conference tournaments since the PacWest brought the tourney back in 2023.
 
Be sure to follow @cuigoldeneagles and @cuisoftball on instagram for updates in the coming days!

CLICK HERE for the NCAA DII Softball Tourney Central

CLICK HERE to go to the Regional Tournament Central page