CLEVELAND, Ga. (May 14, 2021) – On Tuesday, the NAIA released National Championship Opening Round qualifiers and pairings, set to begin Monday, May 17 - Wednesday, May 19, and the No. 23 Truett McConnell University softball team was seeded No. 3 in the Hattiesburg, Mississippi bracket, hosted by the No. 1 William Carey University (39-9). William Carey who will face the No. 4-seeded University of Houston-Victoria (19-21).

The Lady Bears (31-14) are set to face No. 2 Central Baptist College (32-13) in game one on Monday, May 17, with the first pitch at 3:00 p.m. CST.

Nationally, the Lady Bears rank in the top 30 in a handful of different categories, including 15th in fielding percentage (.967), 20th in opponent batting average (.224), 27th in runs batted in per game (5.333), 27th in batting average (.331), 29th in total hits (410), 29th in hits per game (9.111) and 29th in runs scored per game (5.911). 

TMU was one of four teams from the Appalachian Athletic Conference who earned a bid to the opening round, including No. 21 Reinhardt University, Brenau University and Milligan College. This will be the Lady Bears third consecutive appearance in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round and their second appearance in the Hattiesburg bracket, where the team finished 3-2 in 2018.

"Excited to reach the national tournament for the third year in a row," Head Coach Jenni Shepard said. "The girls have been working so hard all season and have overcome different obstacles along the way from COVID-19 restrictions to injury and have really gelled together for a unified goal, to honor Christ in all we do and to win games. They are focused and ready to compete in the Opening Round.

William Carey always does a good job with tournament management, so I know we will have a great experience. Excited to get there and represent TMU by bringing our best from the first pitch to the last."

To visit the tournament page, which includes all live coverage of the event, click here. You can also visit our schedule page for updated results throughout the week.