George Washington University Athletics
GW Softball Ready for A-10 Championship
5/10/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
| 2016 Atlantic 10 Softball Championship | |
| Date | Bracket | Wednesday, May 11-Saturday, May 14 | Bracket |
| Location | GW Softball FIeld | Washington, DC | Directions |
| Additional Information | Championship Central | Tickets | ASN Channel Finder |
| Follow | @GW_Softball | Live Video | Live Stats |
WASHINGTON - The sixth-seeded George Washington softball squad will host the Atlantic 10 Championship for the first time in program history from May 11-14 at the GW Softball Field on the Mount Vernon Campus. The Colonials will showcase a newly renovated playing surface, bullpen area and indoor hitting facility.
The Colonials will face third-seeded UMass on Wednesday in the first round at 2:30 p.m. With a win, GW will move on to face second-seeded Dayton on Thursday, while a loss would result in a matchup with the loser of Saint Louis/Saint Joseph's at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
The A-10 Championship is a double elimination tournament featuring the top six teams in the league. The conference champion will be crowned on Saturday. The top two seeds have received a first round bye.
Fordham (35-18, 18-4 A-10) seeks its fourth consecutive A-10 title and enters the tournament as the top seed and regular-season champion. Dayton (26-19-1, 14-5-1 A-10) will serve as the second seed and is followed by Massachusetts (24-22, 15-6 A-10), Saint Louis (24-24, 14-8 A-10), Saint Joseph's (22-24-1, 10-12-1 A-10) and GW (23-27, 10-13 A-10).
The Colonials return to postseason play for the first time since 2013 and the fourth time in program history (2007, 2012, 2013, 2016). Sixth-year head coach Stacey Schramm has now led GW to its last three A-10 tournament appearances. The Buff and Blue grabbed the first postseason victory in program history in 2012, when the Colonials went on to reach the title game before falling to Massachusetts.
"It feels great to be back, especially with this team," said Schramm. "They are so resilient and continue to push forward. I have never been so proud of a team for not allowing adversity to interfere with their goal. We made it, but now we will strive to do more."
The Colonials look to avenge a regular-season sweep at the hands of UMass that saw the Minutewomen blast five home runs at the GW Softball Field.
Junior Megan Linn leads all active Colonials with a .378 average, 38 runs scored and a .577 slugging percentage. The shortstop is currently tied with Amanda Zakeri ('13) for GW's all-time career steals record with 72 swipes. Classmate Paige Kovalsky continues to lead the conference with 18 doubles on the year - just one shy of GW's single-season record of 19 set in 2014 by Victoria Valos ('15).
Sophomore ace Sarah Costlow (14-13, 2.50 ERA) has been a workhorse for the Colonials in 2016, ranking second in the league with 179.0 innings pitched. The hurler already ranks third on GW's all-time list with 30 career victories and enters her first postseason tournament after a complete game victory at Saint Louis on Sunday.
The Minutewomen are led at the plate by Jena Cozza, who ranks fifth in the A-10 in batting average (.381), second in slugging percentage (.707) and home runs (11), and fourth in runs scored (41). Taylor Carbone is also batting an impressive .381 this spring while adding a team-best 37 RBI to her stat line.
Meg Colleran (20-15, 2.13 ERA) leads the conference in victories and ranks fifth in ERA, tossing 25 complete games for the Minutewomen.
"We're preparing for UMass' pitcher, who did a decent job of quieting our bats during our series against them," said Schramm. "She is much improved from last season. We're working on pitch selection and discipline at the plate. We're also letting Sarah Costlow rest and recover which is more important than any other preparation at this point in the season. We're taking this one game at a time, just as we did all season, with the understanding that winning this first game puts us in a great position for the rest of the tournament."
All games on Wednesday and Thursday will be live streamed online for free through the A-10 Network. Friday and Saturday competition will be televised live on ASN and will be available in approximately 30 million households.
