The Utah women's softball team is headed to Iowa for the NCAA tournament.
The Utes received the No. 3 seed in the four-team regional in Iowa City and will face No. 2-seeded Missouri on Friday. No. 1-seed Iowa will play No. 4 DePaul in the other opening round game with the winner of the double-elimination tournament advancing to the eight-team College World Series next week at Oklahoma City.Utah will be hoping to duplicate its 1994 accomplishment when it advanced to the World Series. The Utes are led by pitchers Ali Andrus-Sagas and Monica Jimenez, infielders Cyndee Bennett and Karen Bono, catcher Pam Slade and outfielder Sandy Rhea. First-year coach Mona Stevens feels good about her team's chances because of the strong 1-2 pitching of Andrus-Sagas and Jimenez.
Two other WAC schools received No. 1 seeds. WAC champion Colorado State received the top seed in a regional in Massachusetts, while runner-up Fresno State got a top seed as a host team of a regional.
Utah finished the regular season with a 43-16 record.