Badger Softball is Dancing

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin softball team will make its ninth appearance in the NCAA tournament this weekend as the Badgers will head to Florida for the Gainesville Regional.

UW will face Georgia Tech on Friday at 1 p.m. CT in a game that can be seen live on ESPNU. The second game of the regional features host Florida against Canisius that starts at 3:30 p.m. CT.

“Going into the day I felt great,” UW head coach Yvette Healy said. “The wins that we put together, beating Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament, we felt very good. But when you are in that room waiting for your name to come up and it doesn’t, and you have to wait until the end, it’s something. There were a lot of tears shed when Wisconsin came up on the screen.”

This marks the sixth time under head coach Yvette Healy that the Badgers have made the NCAA tournament and the fourth time in the last five tournaments that the Cardinal and White have appeared in the big dance. UW made three-straight tournament appearances from 2017-19 before the 2020 tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19 and missed the 2021 tourney after playing a Big Ten only schedule. The Badgers are 10-10 in the NCAA tournament in Healy.

The Badgers are 3-2 all time in Gainesville as UW played in the 2002 Gator Invitational, picking up a pair of wins against Samford and a win against Maine while falling twice to the host Gators.

Wisconsin enters the weekend with a 28-19 record after finishing eighth in the Big Ten Conference. Kayla Konwent earned first-team All-Big Ten honors while the trio of Fiona Girardot, Ally Miklesh and Maddie Schwartz all collected second-team all-conference accolades.