Huskers Head to Iowa for Regional Play

The 14th-ranked Nebraska softball team earned the program's 12th consecutive NCAA Tournament bid on Sunday and will travel to Iowa City, Iowa, to face the Iowa Hawkeyes at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 19.

Illinois State and No. 10 national seed California make up the rest of the regional. Those schools will meet at 7 p.m. on Friday to conclude the first round of the double-elimination tournament.

Although the Huskers were not one of the 16 national seeds for the tournament, Nebraska can take comfort in the fact that the last time NU traveled to Iowa City was in 2002, which is also the last time the Huskers advanced to the Women's College World Series. This season also marks the fourth straight year Nebraska and Iowa are paired in the same regional and marks the second time in three years that Nebraska, Iowa and California are in the same regional.

Despite the familiarity with the opponents, Nebraska's path to the Super Regional will not be an easy one. Cal is ranked sixth in the latest USA Today/NFCA poll while NU is 14th. The Iowa City Regional is the only one of the 16 regionals that features two top-15 schools. In addition, only six regionals feature more than one ranked team, with four of those regionals are in NU's quarter of the bracket.

NU is 42-10 this season after going 2-2 at the Big 12 Championship and posting the best finish of the leagues' top four seeds, including NCAA Tournament national seeds Texas (0-2) and Texas A&M (1-2). In the regular season, the Huskers finished second behind Texas, while Baylor (third), Texas A&M (fourth), Oklahoma (fifth) and Kansas (sixth) were also selected for the tournament.

The Huskers faced a total of 14 teams in the NCAA field, compiling a 13-8 record against those squads. Nebraska also faced four of the top 16 seeds, finishing with a 2-3 record against those foes.

Nebraska, which has tied the 2002 squad for the best 52-game record in school history, is looking for its eighth WCWS bid and first since 2002, which also went through Iowa City en route to a fifth-place national finish. NU will be looking to advance to its first Super Regional in school history. In 2005, Iowa eliminated Nebraska in the first season of the regional-super regional format.

Scouting Iowa (39-20, 12-7 Big 10)
Iowa was among six Big Ten schools selected to participate in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. The Hawkeyes are 39-20 this season and finished third in the league with a 12-7 record.

Nebraska and Iowa share eight common opponents this season. The Hawkeyes went 13-2 against those eight opponents, while Nebraska went 8-3. Iowa won by an average score of 4.5-2.4, while the Huskers won by an average score of 9.4-1.5.

Iowa boasts a .269 team average and is led by Stacy May. May is hitting a team-best .344 and boasts 13 doubles and six home runs. Emily Nichols (.320) is the only other Hawkeye hitting above .300, but she leads the team with 14 doubles and 35 RBIs.

In the circle, Brittany Weil has tossed the majority of the innings, compiling a 27-14 record with a 2.38 ERA in 279.1 innings. Ali Arnold (12-6, 2.70 ERA) has been the No. 2 pitcher, tossing 111.2 innings.

Last Time We Met
Nebraska and Iowa met twice at the 2005 NCAA Regional at Bowlin Stadium. The Huskers won the first-round meeting, 4-0, before Iowa eliminated Nebraska with a 1-0 victory the following day.

In the first game, Ashley DeBuhr tossed a three-hit shutout with a career-high 17 strikeouts against zero walks. Lizzy Aumua finished 2-for-3, while Trisha Tannahill drove in two runs.

In the second game, Ali Arnold tossed a three-hit shutout for the Hawkeyes, while DeBuhr allowed only a single run in the sixth in a complete-game three-hitter with nine strikeouts.

Stacy May was the top Hawkeye hitter, accounting for three of Iowa's hits and the Hawkeyes' lone run.

Iowa leads the all-time series, 8-7, including a 2-2 mark in Iowa City. The last four meetings in the series have come in the NCAA Tournament.

Quick Hits....

• NU's 42-10 record ties the best 52-game record in the 31-year history of Nebraska softball
• The current .808 winning percentage would be a new school record
• NU finished 20-1 at home, marking the most wins in the history of Bowlin Stadium
• Nebraska's 20 home wins tied the 2000 squad for the most single-season home victories in school history
• Nebraska is 32-4 when out-hitting the opponent, despite a 2-2 mark at the Big 12 Championship
• Nebraska scored 238 runs in 43 games, passing last year's season total (232 runs in 59 games)
• NU scored 81 runs in 17 Big 12 games after scoring just 50 runs in 18 league games in 2005
• NU is 34-3 when holding the opponent to two runs or less
• Nebraska has 38 home runs as a team, doubling the entire 2005 total (19)
• NU has hit three times as many triples in 2006 (9) than it did in 2005 (3)
• Nebraska is 82-of-93 in stolen base attempts
• Lizzy Aumua tied an NU single-game record for hits with a 5-for-5 effort against Illinois
• Devin Porter (2), Jamie Waldecker (1) and Crystal Carwile (1) have each produced 5 or more RBIs in a game
• Prior to this season, a Husker had produced 5+ RBIs four times in the last five years
• Nebraska has been hit by 34 pitches as a team this season, a new school record

Stats of the Week
Nebraska was 30-2 when out-hitting its opponents entering last week's Big 12 Championship. Despite out-hitting every opponent in the championship, the Huskers went just 2-2 in the event. Nebraska was hurt by a pair of shutouts in its four-game stay at the tournament. Prior to the tournament, the Huskers had been shut out only twice in the first 48 games.

DeBuhr Posting Impressive Strikeout Totals
Junior right-hander Ashley DeBuhr record the 600th strikeout of her career against Missouri on May 10 at the Big 12 Championship. Only the fifth pitcher in school history to reach the mark, DeBuhr has hit the 400-, 500- and 600-strikeout milestones this season.

In 203.1 innings, DeBuhr has postsed 272 strikeouts. She is just six shy of Leigh Ann Walker's junior record of 272 strikeouts. DeBuhr is also just 28 strikeouts shy of becoming the first player in school history to record 300 strikeouts in more than one season.

DeBuhr posted 38 strikeouts in four games at the Big 12 Championship last week, an average of more than nine per game. Her strikeout success helped her post a 0.72 ERA and limit oppositing hitters to a meager .102 average. The strikeouts also helped DeBuhr earn the first Big 12 Championship all-tournament team honors of her career.