THIS WEEK: North Dakota State is the No. 3 seed for the Summit League Softball Championship presented by U.S. Air Force Special Warfare. Tournament action begins Wednesday, May 12, at NDSU's Tharaldson Park with two opening round elimination games featuring No. 4 seed Kansas City and No. 5 South Dakota at 3 p.m. followed by NDSU and No. 6 seed North Dakota at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday's winners advance to the double-elimination bracket beginning Thursday, May 13, against top-seeded South Dakota State or No. 2 seed Omaha. Here is the full tournament schedule:
        Wednesday, May 12
        Game 1—(4) Kansas City vs. (5) South Dakota, 3 p.m. (Loser Out)
        Game 2—(3) North Dakota State vs. (6) North Dakota, 5:30 p.m. (Loser Out)
        Thursday, May 13
        Game 3—(1) South Dakota State vs. Winner G1, 12 p.m.
        Game 4—(2) Omaha vs. Winner G2, 2:30 p.m.
        Game 5—Loser G3 vs. Loser G4, 5 p.m. (Loser Out)
        Friday, May 14
        Game 6—Winner G3 vs. Winner G4, 1 p.m.
        Game 7—Loser G6 vs. Winner G5, 3:30 p.m. (Loser Out)
        Saturday, May 15
        Game 8—Championship, 1 p.m.
        Game 9—If Necessary, 3:30 p.m.
 
TICKETS & PARKING: All seating is general admission and tickets may be purchased at the gate on game day. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for youth ages 3-17. Parking is available in NDSU parking lot NQ to the north of Tharaldson Park on 17th Avenue. Attendees are strongly encouraged to wear masks.
 
COVERAGE: Midco Sports Network will televise every tournament game with Brian Shawn and David Brown handling the play-by-play call alongside analyst Katie Cochran, a four-time All-American at Arizona State and former member of Team USA. Live video will be available on TheSummitLeague.org/watch and live stats will be available on BisonStats.com.
 
NCAA SELECTION SHOW: The winner of this weekend's Summit League tournament will earn the league's automatic qualifier for the 64-team NCAA Division I Softball Championship, which begins with 16 four-team regionals the weekend of May 21-23. Tournament selections and brackets will be announced on an ESPN2 selection show beginning at 8 p.m. CT on Sunday, May 16.
 
TOURNEY TOWN: This is the ninth time North Dakota State has hosted the Summit League softball tournament since becoming eligible for the NCAA Division I postseason in 2009. Western Illinois (2009, 2011) and Kansas City (2012) are the only other teams to host the tournament over those 12 seasons. NDSU has won seven of the previous eight tournaments held in Fargo with No. 2 seed Fort Wayne in 2013 the only other team to claim the title at NDSU. South Dakota State, this year's regular-season champion and No. 1 seed, has earned the right to host the 2022 Summit League tournament.
 
SEED HISTORY: North Dakota State has been the No. 1 or No. 2 seed for nine straight Summit League tournaments. NDSU's No. 3 seed this year is the team's lowest since winning the 2010 tournament in Fargo over top-seeded Western Illinois. That was one of only four years a team lower than No. 1 or No. 2 has won the league's postseason tournament joining No. 3 Western Illinois in 2001, No. 3 Centenary in 2005 and No. 4 Western Illinois in 2008. The lowest-seeded team to reach a Summit League championship game was No. 6 IUPUI, the runner-up to NDSU in 2016.
 
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY: North Dakota State has advanced to NCAA regional play 10 of the past 11 seasons as the Summit League tournament champion. NDSU qualified for its first NCAA Division I tournament in 2009, the school's first year of Division I postseason eligibility, and the Bison swept through the Norman Regional that year to advance to Super Regional play at Arizona State. NDSU made seven NCAA Division II postseason appearances from 1998-2004 including a national championship in 2000.
 
TOURNAMENT VETERANS: NDSU shortstop Montana DeCamp and outfielders Madyson Camacho and Stephanie Soriano are the tournament veterans of the Bison lineup. Each have started all 13 possible Summit League tournament games since their freshman year in 2017. Camacho, a 2019 all-tournament selection, has a career .410 batting average (16-for-39) with three RBIs and 12 runs scored in tournament play. Soriano is hitting .350 (14-for-40) with five RBIs and 10 runs scored. DeCamp, a 2017 all-tournament honoree after belting three home runs in the tournament as a freshman, is hitting .250 (10-for-40) with nine RBIs and eight runs scored in league tourney play.
 
VARGAS BACK IN THE CIRCLE: Right-hander Paige Vargas is the only NDSU pitcher with previous Summit League tournament experience. Vargas was the 2019 tournament MVP after pitching NDSU's final 21 innings and 319 pitches of the tournament compiling a 3-0 record and 0.33 ERA with a pair of shutouts against South Dakota State and South Dakota as the Bison came out of the loser's bracket to beat USD in the championship. Vargas has struck out a career-high 10 twice in her last four starts.
 
DeCAMP MOVING UP ASSISTS CHART: Shortstop Montana DeCamp has a chance to move into the top five on NDSU's all-time fielding assists chart this weekend. DeCamp enters the Summit League tournament ranked seventh in school history with 379 career assists behind No. 6 SS Molly Pufall (381, 2000-03) and No. 5 SS Nicole Rivera (383, 2008-11). Bison Athletic Hall of Fame SS Nikki (Flynn) Gregg holds the NDSU career assists record with 619 from 1997-2000.
 
IN THE SUMMIT LEAGUE STATS: North Dakota State ranked second in The Summit League with a .277 team batting average in league play only. NDSU had two of the top 10 hitters in league play with Emilee Buringa (.385) fourth and Madyson Camacho (.359) ninth. Buringa was fifth in the league with a .442 on-base percentage, Montana DeCamp was fouth with 26 hits and tied for second with five doubles while Stephanie Soriano was fifth with 25 hits. Avery Wysong tied for the league lead in home runs (6) and was sixth in RBIs (16). Lainey Lyle was third in the league with a 1.65 ERA, fourth with a .185 opponent batting average and tied with teammate Paige Vargas for fifth in the league with 47 strikeouts.
 
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE: North Dakota State played The Summit League's toughest non-conference schedule in preparation for league play. Nine of NDSU's 12 non-conference opponents are among the Top 100 of the NCAA RPI rankings and NDSU has the only Top 100 strength of schedule in The Summit League.
 
SERIES SWEEPS: Since beginning Summit League play in 2008, NDSU has swept 39 three-game series including 26 away from Fargo. The Bison have been swept only three times in league play with all three coming on the road against Purdue Fort Wayne (2010), Kansas City (2011) and South Dakota State (four games, 2021).
 
FIELD OF THE YEAR: Tharaldson Park, the on-campus home softball stadium for North Dakota State, was named the NCAA Division I winner of the 2020 Netting Professionals NFCA Field of the Year award, which recognizes the top fields/stadiums in the nation for their flawless grounds maintenance and exceptional playing surfaces. Tharaldson Park was dedicated in 2018 after a $2 million renovation including installation of a FieldTurf playing surface and seating for 735 spectators.
 
NATIONALLY RANKED OPPONENTS: North Dakota State beat at least one nationally ranked opponent in seven straight seasons from 2012 to 2018 with the most recent Top 25 victory coming in 2018 over 10th-ranked LSU by a 1-0 score in nine innings. That is one of five Bison wins over Top 10 opponents including a 2-1 victory at No. 2 Alabama in 2016, the highest-ranked opponent NDSU has beaten. NDSU's first win over a nationally ranked Division I program came in 2009 with an 11-inning 1-0 victory at No. 9/10 Oklahoma en route to the NCAA regional championship.
 
EXTRA INNINGS: North Dakota State has played six extra-inning games this season with a 4-2 record in those contests. NDSU is 13-4 in extra innings since 2017 and the Bison have a 41-30 record since beginning Division I play in 2005 including three 12-inning games against Colorado State in 2006 (W, 3-2); Kansas City in 2012 (L, 4-6) and Georgia Tech in 2017 (W, 8-6).
 
NO-HITTERS: North Dakota State pitchers have thrown 31 no-hitters including 14 against Division I opponents with Lainey Lyle's April 10 no-no being the first since 2019 when KK Leddy blanked South Dakota State 5-0. There have been eight perfect games by NDSU pitchers with the last one in 2015 by Krista Menke at Purdue Fort Wayne. There have been six no-hitters pitched against NDSU in Division I play since 2005. Illinois State's Morgan Day struck out 16 and walked one in the last no-hitter against North Dakota State in the championship game of the Middle Tennessee State University Invitational on March 14.