LOWELL, MA (May 2, 2008) – The UMass Lowell softball team, the 2007 Northeast-10 Tournament Champion, received the No. 4 seed and will meet No. 5 Pace University Saturday (11:00) in the 2008 NE-10 Tournament hosted by Le Moyne College.

The River Hawks (24-24, 17-11 in the NE-10) received the No. 4 seed by virtue of its fourth-place finish in the NE-10 regular season, one place better than last year’s fifth-place showing.

Le Moyne (40-8, 27-1 NE-10) received the No. 1 seed for the second straight year and hosts No. 8 Saint Rose (17-21, 14-14) Saturday at 9:00 while No. 2 Bryant (23-5, 26-12) meets No. 7 Stonehill (23-19, 15-13) also at 9:00. No. 3 Southern Connecticut (23-24, 17-11) will face No. 6 Saint Anselm (21-17, 15-13) at 11:00.

Due to recent inclement weather which delayed the completion of the regular season, the Tournament was shortened to a single elimination format.

Despite having the No. 5 seed last season, UML peaked at the perfect time and stormed through the NE-10 Tournament, defeating No. 2 Bryant (4-2), No. 1 Le Moyne (8-4) and Merrimack (5-2, 3-2) for its first-ever title.

As a result, the River Hawks also received the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament Northeast Regional, where they defeated Le Moyne (4-1) and Georgian Court (3-0) before falling to Bryant (0-2) and host C.W. Post (0-2).

Head Coach Harry Sauter, in his 14th season, wouldn’t mind seeing recent history repeat.

“Pace is probably the hottest team in the conference right now, other than Le Moyne,” he said. “With one-game elimination, anyone can sneak up on anyone. I think the field is about the same as last year, but the bottom two seeds (Saint Anselm and Stonehill) have been playing some good ball lately. I think the right teams are there. If anyone has a lucky day, they can sneak up.”

UML looks to avenge a pair of regular season losses against Pace in the first round. The Setters dealt UML a 2-0/4-1 sweep on Apr. 26.

The River Hawks’ last eight games were all against teams which qualified for the NE-10 Tournament. During that span, UML posted a 2-6 record, defeating Saint Rose (6-4, 4-1), but falling to Le Moyne (6-0, 8-0), Southern Connecticut (1-0, 2-0) and Pace.

UML is a combined 6-8 against the Tournament field, posting victories over Saint Rose, Stonehill (8-6, 5-2) and Saint Anselm (12-2, 10-4) but dropping twin bills to Bryant (0-3, 3-4), as well as Le Moyne, Southern Connecticut and Pace.

“Our pitching has gotten better this season, but we need to get our bats going,” Sauter said. “We didn’t play that badly at Pace. If we can get our bats going in the first game, we can beat them. We just need some people on base.”

The River Hawks are led by senior OF Laurie Tanguay (Lowell, MA), who leads UML in hitting (.368) and RBI (tying the school record of 42) while junior OF Stacey Lajoie (Gardner, MA) has been a force with a .345 average, a team-high seven home runs and 27 RBI.

On the mound, sophomore Lindsay Farmer (Kingston, NH) has maintained a 3.64 ERA en route to an 11-12 clip over 148.1 innings. Freshman Nicole Monroe (Townsend, MA) has posted a team-high 2.65 ERA with an 8-6 record over 102.0 innings.

NE-10 Tournament Schedule
Quarterfinal Round - Saturday, May 3		Site	Time
Game 1	#1 LeMoyne vs. #8 St. Rose	LeMoyne	9:00 am
Game 2	#2 Bryant vs. #7 Stonehill	Hopkins Road Park	9:00 am
Game 3	#3 Southern Connecticut vs. #6 St. Anselm	Hopkins Road Park	11:00 am
Game 4	#4 UMass Lowell vs. #5 Pace	LeMoyne	11:00 am
Semifinal - Saturday, May 3
Game 5	Game 1 Winner vs. Game 4 Winner	LeMoyne	1:00 pm
Game 6	Game 2 Winner vs. Game 3 Winner	Hopkins Road Park	1:00 pm
Championship - Sunday May 4 (Best 2 of 3 at LeMoyne)
Game 1	at 9 am
Game 2	at 11 am
Game 3	(if necessary) at 1 pm