Courtesy Worcester State Sports Information

Cape Cod, MA --- The Worcester State Softball team will play Western New England College on Wednesday in the 2010 ECAC Division III New England Tournament at 4 PM. The Lancers earned the sixth seed in the tournament and travel to play the #3 Golden Bears in the first round of the double-elimination tournament.

The other opening round contest involves #4 Anna Maria hosts fifth seeded Bridgewater State on Wednesday. Little East runner-up and top-seed Keene State along with New England Collegiate Conference champion and #2 Lesley receive first-round byes.

Keene State will host the semifinals on Saturday afternoon. The Owls play the winner of the Bridgewater State/Anna Maria game while Lesley will face off against the victor of the Worcester State/Western New England contest. The winners and the losers will then play each other afterwards. The championship round will be at Keene State on Sunday.

Worcester State makes their sixth appearance in the ECAC Tournament with the last one coming in 1997 under WSC Hall of Fame Coach Lynne Olsen. Olsen also led the squad to the 1990 ECAC North Championship and to a 1988 tournament berth. Hall of Famer Bruce Baker also helped direct two teams to ECAC tournaments in 1984 and 1986 in his three-year tenure as head coach.

The Lancers are 19-17 overall with the guidance of second year head coach Jen Kapenas. WSC was bounced from the MASCAC Tournament this weekend by Framingham State in the semifinal round. Worcester State made their first conference tournament appearance since 2004 and the team posted their first winning season since 2002.

The Blue and Gold are propelled by junior southpaw Michaella Mahoney (Shrewsbury, MA) who is second in the MASCAC in ERA (1.73) and complete games while she’s third in innings (146) and strikeouts (124). Sophomore Erica Cordio (Leominster, MA) tops the conference in batting average (.451), total bases (85), on base percentage (.514) and slugging (.697).