OREM, Utah - After finishing 7-11 in conference play and entering postseason in the No. 4 spot, the Utah Valley University softball team will open WAC Tournament play on Wednesday, May 8 against against No. 5 UMKC at 3:30 p.m. MT at GCU softball stadium in Phoenix.
The Wolverines (15-29) claimed seven conference games including two series sweeps against UMKC and CSU Bakersfield. UVU also picked up a win at No. 2 seed New Mexico State.
Freshman Abby Doughty leads Utah Valley with team-highs of a .333 batting average, and 28 runs scored while also driving in 21 runs on 41 hits including seven homeruns. Doughty was the WAC Hitter of the Week earlier in the season for her performance against UMKC that propelled the Wolverines to their first sweep of the season.
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Junior Lyndsay Steverson leads the Wolverines with a 10 home runs, 35 RBIs and a .618 slugging percentage. Following suit, senior Brianna Moeller leads UVU with 48 hits and 13 doubles while batting .331 batting average, with six home runs.Â
Utah Valley will enter the 2019 WAC Tournament with a 8-8 all-time mark in five previous conference tournament appearances. In their first season in the WAC, the fourth-seeded Wolverines reeled off an improbable four straight wins in Seattle en route to winning UVU's first WAC Tournament title in program history and the school's first NCAA bid in any sport. Utah Valley then went 2-2 in 2015, 1-2 in 2016 and 0-2 in 2017 and 1-2 last season.
Every game of the 2019Â WAC Tournament will be streamed live ESPN+ and on the WAC Digital Network (international only) as well as OTT applications for Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV and Roku. Live stats will be available for each game through StatBroadcast.
Kansas City finished the 2019 WAC season with a 6-12 record and is the No. 5 seed in this week's tournament. Sydney Garcia and Chyanne Onstad are both batting .344 to lead the Roos while Maegan Rollow and Madason Shaw share the team lead with six home runs apiece. UVU is 13-11 all-time against Kansas City including a three-game sweep in Orem earlier this season.
With a win on Wednesday, the Wolverines would advance in the winner's bracket and face either regular season champion and top seed Seattle U or No. 2 seed New Mexico State on Thursday, pending results of Wednesday's second game. A loss would put UVU into a win-or-go-home contest on Thursday night.
