Upcoming Event: Softball versus UCSB on February 6, 2026 at 2 p.m.
2 p.m.
Softball
vs UCSB
The University of Utah Athletics
Softball Treads Into MWC Tournament
5/8/2006 12:00 AM | Softball
May 8, 2006
2006 MWC Tournament Bracket in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
LAS VEGAS - The University of Utah softball team (34-19 overall, 10-8 Mountain West Conference) enters the post season this weekend when it ventures into the Mountain West Conference tournament in Las Vegas Thurs.-Sat., May 11-13. It will be held at Eller Media Stadium on the campus of UNLV.
The Utes enter the tournament after a rough weekend of conference play. With a chance to claim the regular season title, the Utes lost a pair of road doubleheaders to UNLV and San Diego State. The four straight losses dropped Utah to third, making it the No. 3 seed in the upcoming tournament.
The first game for Utah is No. 6 seed University of New Mexico (23-29, 4-16 Mountain West) on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. (PDT). The Lobos enter the tournament having split their last two games with Colorado State.
The winner of the Utah-New Mexico first-round match up will face the No.2 -seed Brigham Young University on Thursday night at 4:30 p.m. (PDT). The championship game is on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (PDT) with the winner receiving the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The final game will be televised on CSTV.
Utah and New Mexico have tangled four times this year, going 2-2. The last time out, the Lobos bagged a 7-3 win in the first game of the doubleheader in Salt Lake City. The Utes rebounded in the nightcap to take the 8-3 win.
Softball Notes:
Diana Phillips and Jackie Wong had a hit in each game they played in last week. Phillips raced her hitting streak out to a career-long 21 games while Wong upped her career-best hitting streak to 20 games. The 21-game hitting streak for Phillips tied BYU's Ianeta L'ei for the longest hitting streak in the conference this season.
The Utes enter the tournament having homered in eight of their last nine games and in each of their last seven contests. The team finished with 33 home runs this season, a far cry from the 21 they hit in all of 2005.
Utah enters the tournament grappling with some pitching woes. One of its strengths all season, the two starters (Karina Cannon and Meghan Dyer) finished last week with a combined earned-run average of 5.94. Opponents also hit .340 against Utah's No. 1 and No. 2 hitters. Those numbers are way off from their season numbers where Cannon owns a team-best 2.23 earned-run average and Dyer a 2.80 ERA. On the year, opponents are hitting .253 against the Utes.
Jackie Wong upped her conference-leading batting average to .456 last weekend. She hit .478 (11-for-23) in six games last week. Among her hits were a double and a home run. Also impressive is her on-base percentage (.520) and slugging percentage (.652.)
The four hitters at the top of Utah's batting order (Jackie Wong, Diana Phillips, Jessica Shiery and Devina Quintero) accounted for 60 percent of the team's hits last week. They belted out 35 of the team's 58 hits. The fearsome foursome hit .467 (35-for-75) last week, well above the team's .331 average.
Jessica Shiery enters the tournament with a potent swing. In the six games last week, she had a team-leading 13 RBI, three home runs and had an eye-popping .944 slugging percentage. For the week, she hit .444 (8-for-18).
Players Mentioned
Utah Softball's Hailee White Feature
Tuesday, April 15
Utah Softball's Jolie Mayfield Feature
Friday, March 28
Utah Softball - The Inaugural 1976 Team
Wednesday, March 19
University of Utah Athletics - A Storied History
Friday, August 02