FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2008
Contact: Dwayne Hanberry, SCAC Interim Commissioner

DEPAUW SOFTBALL SELECTED TO WIN 2008 TITLE

SUWANEE, Ga. – Based on voting by the head coaches in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), DePauw University is the clear team to beat in the race for the 2008 conference softball title.

The DU Tigers became the first SCAC team to advance to the NCAA Softball Championships after winning all four of its regional games in the school's first-ever NCAA Division III post-season softball appearance.

DePauw garnered seven of the eight coaches’ votes, while defending conference champion Trinity University received the remaining first-place vote.

Trinity has won the last three conference softball titles and seven of nine overall, but DePauw brings back junior catcher Rachel Gill, the 2007 SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Year, as well as sophomore pitcher Megan Soultz, the school's first-ever NFCA softball all-American, among its returnees from last year's NCAA Elite Eight squad.

DePauw has never won a SCAC softball championship, but did win a conference record 37 games in 2007 while going 11-1 in the SCAC East.

As for the division races, DePauw is the consensus pick in the East, and received all four first-place votes. Centre College and Millsaps College - which is moving over from the West this season - tied for second and Sewanee-University of the South was selected to finish fourth.

Trinity is the pick in the West and received three of five first-place votes. Hendrix College was selected to finish second and Rhodes College, who is moving over from the East this season, finished a close third in the voting process. Austin College and SCAC newcomer Colorado College each received a first-place vote and tied for the fourth choice among the coaches in the West division.

At the 2007 SCAC Softball Championships held at Trinity University, the home team won three consecutive games as Trinity claimed its seventh conference softball title, capped by a 2-0 victory over Centre in the championship game. As the league’s automatic qualifier, Trinity was the fourth seed in the NCAA West Regional, but was eliminated after going 1-2 - picking up one victory over Hardin-Simmons University along the way.

The league had just one coaching change entering the 2008 season as Amber George takes over the Sewanee program from interim head coach Emily Cline. George comes to the Mountain from Judson College, where she was most recently assistant softball and assistant basketball coach. Southwestern University, which will field a varsity softball team for the first time in 2009, has already hired their first head coach - Angela Froboese. Froboese spent the last four years as the head coach at Howard Payne University where she posted an overall mark of 85-65, 67-37 in conference play.

Birmingham-Southern College will also play a SCAC schedule for the first time in 2009 after one more season in the Division I Big South Conference.