UPDATE (5/12, 8:30 pm): Friday's game vs. Neumann has been moved up to an 11 a.m. start due to rain in the forecast. 

PURCHASE, N.Y. – For the second time in the last three years, the #19 Manhattanville College softball team is back in the NCAA Div. III Championships and will look to continue the best season in program history this weekend at the Ewing, New Jersey Regional, which runs Friday through Sunday at The College of New Jersey's Dr. June Walker Field.
 
Manhattanville will kick off the double-elimination tournament on Friday at 11 a.m. when the second-seeded Valiants take on third-seeded Neumann University in the first round of the regional. Top-seeded TCNJ will face fourth-seeded College of Staten Island in the second opening-day contest at 1:30 p.m.
 
Four teams will compete at 14 regional sites and three teams will compete at two regional sites on May 13-15, with the team advancing from each regional moving on to the super regional round on May 20 and 21. The finals will be hosted by the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the City of Salem, Va., on May 26-31.
 
HOW MANHATTANVILLE GOT HERE: Manhattanville (37-2, 13-1 MAC Freedom) was one of 43 conference champions to earn an automatic berth to the NCAA Championship, winning three straight games to capture the program's second MAC Freedom Championship in the last three years, culminating in a 3-0 victory over FDU-Florham on Sunday afternoon.
 
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY: The Valiants will be making their sixth appearance in the NCAA Tournament in program history and the first since 2014, when the team reached the regional final for the first time. Manhattanville is 4-10 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, having made the tourney previously in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2014. The squad is the only non-hockey program at Manhattanville to ever win a game in the national tournament and ranks behind only the women's hockey team (five) for most NCAA Tournament victories by a Valiant team.
 
MOVING UP THE RANKS: Manhattanville once again moved one more spot up the national rankings to #19 in the latest NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll released on Wednesday. The Valiants received votes in the poll for the first time on April 6 and broke into the top 25 for the first time in program history on April 13 (#23), and have moved up one spot in each of the last four weeks.
 
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: The Valiants are currently in the midst of one of the biggest single-season turnarounds in Division III history. Coming off of an injury-plagued 13-20 season in 2015, the team's 37-2 mark is a 21-game improvement, a mark that is tied for the third-best single-season improvement ever in D-III. The Valiants are one of two teams in the country with just two losses, along with Luther College (36-2), and boast the best winning percentage in D-III (.949).
 
BIG BATS: Despite a below-average weekend at the MAC Freedom Tournament, the Valiants still enter the NCAAs as the top hitting team in Division III, boasting a team batting average of .399 and averaging 8.82 runs per game to lead the country. Manhattanville also leads D-III in home runs (64), home runs per game (1.64), doubles per game (2.56), slugging percentage (.694) and on-base percentage (.453).
 
RECORD SETTERS: Manhattanville has already set multiple team and individual records this season. Individually, freshmen Desiree Buboi (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran) and Sophia Chapelone (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon) have both scored a record 49 runs, classmate Aarin Hartenstein (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) has hit 22 doubles and amassed 113 total bases, and Hartenstein and junior Alicia Marino (Mahopac, N.Y./Pleasantville) have both driven in a record 52 runs. As a team, Manhattanville currently holds school single-season records for batting average (.399), slugging percentage (.694), runs scored (344), hits (431), doubles (100), home runs (64), runs batted in (314), total bases (749), wins (37), shutouts (13) and fielding percentage (.965).
 
SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS: Neumann (26-14, 22-1 CSAC) captured the program's seventh Colonial States Athletic Conference championship with two wins on Sunday, as the top-seeded Knights defeated sixth-seeded Cedar Crest College, 12-3, and second-seeded Cabrini College, 9-4.
 
Neumann is hitting .356 as a team and averages 7.75 runs per game this season. The top hitter for the Knights is All-CSAC first-teamer Danielle Grayson with a .427 batting average, eight home runs and 43 runs batted in, while Julia Cox is right behind with a .425 batting average, 32 runs batted in and a team-leading 38 runs scored as the team's other All-Conference first-team pick. In the circle, Neumann has a team earned run average of 3.28 and is led by CSAC Tournament Most Valuable Player and All-CSAC second-team selection Lauren Wilkie, who is 10-4 with a 2.10 ERA and 61 strikeouts in 96.2 innings.
 
The Valiants and Knights have two common opponents this season, having both played Cedar Crest and Marywood University. The Valiants opened the season with a 14-0 win over Cedar Crest on March 6 and then bested Marywood 15-5 the next day in Florida. Neumann beat Cedar Crest twice in conference play, 4-2 and 6-4, before their conference semifinal victory, and also swept Marywood, 10-0 and 6-0, in CSAC play.
 
ALL-TIME VS. NEUMANN: The ECAC West Conference men's hockey rivals have never met before on the softball field.
 
SCOUTING THE LIONS: TCNJ (28-14, 13-5 NJAC) entered the New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament as the third seed and won its first two games before weather shortened the tournament to a one-game championship between the Lions and #17 Rowan University, which Rowan won by an 11-0 score on Sunday. TCNJ has won six national championships in program history, with the last coming in 1996.
 
The Lions hit .306 as a team this season, averaging 4.5 runs per game. All-NJAC first-team pick Gaby Bennett leads the team with a .368 batting average and 26 runs batted in, while Steph Vuono paces the Lions with 31 runs scored and 18 extra-base hits on the season. TCNJ has a team ERA of 2.58 this season, with all three primary starters posting ERAs under 2.75. All-NJAC first-teamer Sam Platt has started a team-best 18 games and boasts a 17-4 record with 72 strikeouts in 124.0 innings, while Katie Hourihan is 6-5 with a 2.54 ERA in 15 starts.
 
TCNJ and Manhattanville have one common opponent this season, with both teams beating William Paterson University twice. The Valiants knocked off the then-unbeaten Pioneers by scores of 9-0 and 10-4 on March 29, while the Lions started NJAC play with 4-2 and 3-1 wins over WPU on April 2.
 
ALL-TIME VS. TCNJ: Manhattanville and TCNJ have split their two all-time meetings, both of which have come on Spring Break. The Lions earned an 11-2 win on March 12, 2013, while Manhattanville picked up an 8-7 victory on March 8, 2014.
 
SCOUTING THE DOLPHINS: Staten Island (25-12, 11-1 CUNYAC) captured its fourth straight City University of New York Athletic Conference championship on Sunday with an 8-0 victory over second-seeded Hunter College to complete a perfect 3-0 weekend.
 
Staten Island enters the postseason hitting .330 as a team this year, having outscored its opponents 249-93. Christina Tufano is the team's top hitter with a .407 batting average, 36 RBIs and 30 runs scored, while Jacqueline Cautela is hitting .376 with a  team-leading 43 runs scored and 22 extra-base hits. The Dolphins boast a team ERA of 1.95 entering the week with 15 total shutouts in 37 games. Nicolette Trapani has made 16 starts (12-4) with a team-best 1.46 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 96.0 innings, followed close behind by Cautela with a 13-6 record, a 1.70 ERA and 104 strikeouts in a team-high 115.0 innings of work.
 
Manhattanville and Staten Island have four common opponents this season: Hunter, Brooklyn College, College of Mount Saint Vincent and New York University. The Valiants went 7-1 against the four teams and outscored them by a combined 86-24 margin, while CSI had a 6-2 record and outscored the opponents 57-13 – a mark that is skewed by a combined 43-0 sweep of Brooklyn.
 
ALL-TIME VS. STATEN ISLAND: Manhattanville and Staten Island have met 19 times all-time with CSI holding a slight 10-9 edge, but the teams haven't met since splitting a doubleheader on April 11, 2010. The teams do have one piece of shared postseason history, with Staten Island eliminating Manhattanville from the 2005 NCAA Tournament with a 3-2 win over the Valiants.
 
NCAA TOURNAMENT – EWING, NEW JERSEY REGIONAL SCHEDULE
Friday, May 13, 2016
Game One – 11:00 am: #2 Manhattanville vs. #3 Neumann 
Game Two – 1:30 pm: #1 TCNJ vs. #4 Staten Island
 
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Game Three – 10:00 am: Game #1 Winner vs. Game #2 Winner
Game Four – 12:30 pm: Game #1 Loser vs. Game #2 Loser (loser is eliminated)
Game Five – 3:00 pm: Game #3 Loser vs. Game #4 Winner (loser is eliminated)
 
Sunday, May 15, 2016 – Championship Round
Game Six – 12:00 pm: Game #3 Winner vs. Game #5 Winner
Game Seven – 2:30 pm: Game #3 Winner vs. Game #5 Winner (if necessary)
 
For those who plan on being attendance this weekend, single-session tickets are $6.00 for adults, $4.00 for senior citizens and veterans, and $3.00 for students and children under 12 years old. If you can't make it to New Jersey for the games, TCNJ will have live stats and live video for all games, which can be accessed at www.govaliants.com/live. Manhattanville will also be providing in-game commentary (as well as off-the-field content) all weekend long on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
 
To view the official NCAA Division III Championships program, visit http://www.ncaa.com/diiisoftball. The complete NCAA bracket can also be viewed at http://www.ncaa.com/2016-diii-softball-regionals.