Published on May 9, 2016 by Philip Poole  
Softball Win

The Â鶹¹û¶³ softball Bulldogs won the 2016 Southern Conference regular season championship May 7 with a weekend sweep of UNCG. It was softball’s first conference championship in 25 years and its first since Â鶹¹û¶³ joined the Southern Conference.

The top-seeded Bulldogs will open SoCon tournament play Thursday, May 12, with an 11:30 a.m. CDT contest against the winner of the Wednesday game between 4th seed UNCG and 5th seed East Tennessee State. The double-elimination tournament will be held in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Â鶹¹û¶³'s Megan Dowdy and Mollie Hanson were named Southern Conference Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively, as voted by the league's head coaches and announced by the conference office. Â鶹¹û¶³'s Mandy Burford was tabbed Coach of the Year.

 
Located in the Homewood suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Â鶹¹û¶³ is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Â鶹¹û¶³ enrolls 6,324 students from 44 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s 35 Most Beautiful College Campuses, Â鶹¹û¶³ fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and boasts one of the highest scores in the nation for its 97% Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.