NCAA SOFTBALL : UCLA Faces Massachusetts; CS Long Beach Meets Arizona

UCLA and Cal State Long Beach are among the eight teams that will play in the NCAA Division I women’s softball tournament, which begins today at Oklahoma City.

Top-seeded UCLA (49-2) plays eighth-seeded Massachusetts. The Bruins defeated Utah, Western Athletic Conference champion, in a two-team regional Friday and Saturday at UCLA.

Massachusetts (37-14) worked its way out of a double-elimination, three-team regional at Amherst, Mass., on Saturday and Sunday. After Utah State was eliminated, Massachusetts won two of three games against Connecticut.

If UCLA defeats Massachusetts, it plays Saturday against the winner of today’s California-Florida State game. California (46-14) is seeded fourth and Florida State (63-7) is seeded fifth.

Seventh-seeded Long Beach (39-30) begins play against second-seeded Arizona (55-5) on Friday. Long Beach won a three-team regional on Saturday and Sunday at Cal State Fullerton. After Mid-American Conference champion Toledo was eliminated, the 49ers won two of three games against Cal State Fullerton.

Arizona, Pacific 10 Conference champion, swept two games in a best-of-three series at Tucson against Big Ten champion Michigan (37-24).

If Long Beach defeats Arizona, it plays Saturday against the winner of Friday’s Fresno State-Kansas game. Fresno State (50-14), Big West Conference champion, is seeded third and Kansas (45-8) is seeded sixth.

For the record: It was reported Saturday that Lisa Fernandez of UCLA broke the NCAA record for consecutive victories when she won her 24th on Friday. Rebecca Aase of Florida State holds the record with 35, dating to last season.