KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, (NAIA) has released the bracket and pool play matchups for the 2009 Softball National Championship, and the #12 Brenau Golden Tigers will open play against #25 Notre Dame, OH.
The tournament will be held in Decatur, AL and is hosted by Decatur Parks and Recreation. The 29th annual tournament will begin with pool play from May 14-16 and the winners from each four-team pool will move into an eight-team double elimination bracket, played from May 18-20. Notre Dame finished the season with a 30-9 overall record, 18-2 mark in the American Mideast Conference. They also won the conference tournament and received an automatic bid to the nationals. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools. On Friday, the Tigers will take on Waldorf, IA, the Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament Champions, who finished with a 32-11 overall record and receiving votes in the NAIA Poll. These two schools have never played each other. In the final game of pool play, Brenau will play #5 William Carey, MS in a rematch of the Orange Coast Tournament in March. The Tigers lost their first game of the season to Carey, 4-3 on March 13.