The Huskies will be heading to Fayetteville for the Regional round of the national tourney.
The Washington Huskies softball team is going dancing.
The Huskies softball team was named as an at-large team to the 2026 NCAA softball tournament on Sunday. UW will be in the tournament as the No. 7 seed and will compete in the Fayetteville, Ark., regional with the home team — the No. 2 seed Arkansas Razorbacks — and the South Florida Bulls and the Fordham Rams. The regional will take place at Bogle Park.
UW was unable to clinch the Big Ten's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after falling 9-2 to Indiana in the second round of the Big Ten tournament May 7 at Robert E. Taylor Stadium in College Park, Md.
The regional round of the tournament is played under a double-elimination format.
Washington will begin regional play against South Florida at a to-be-determined time on Friday at Bogle Park.
The Huskies were one of the best teams in the Big Ten for most of the season. They'll enter the regional round of the NCAA Tournament with a 36-18 overall record and a 16-18 mark in conference play.
Despite the solid mark and the at-large bid, Washington's exact status as an at-large tournament was in doubt due to how it ended the regular season.
The Huskies lost their final three series against 18th-ranked Oregon, seventh-ranked UCLA and Ohio State. Washington went 1-8 during that stretch and 2-9 including its win against Minnesota and loss against Indiana in the Big Ten tournament.
This year will be the 32nd consecutive NCAA tournament for the UW softball program. They've made it every single season since 1994.
Current softball head coach Heather Tarr has been responsible for the last 22 of the program's 32 tournament berths.
The softball program has won the national championship once (2009), has been the national runners-up three times ('96, '99, 2018) and has made it to the NCAA Women's College World Series 15 times ('96-00, '03-04, '07, '09-10, '13, '17-19, '23).
The Huskies are one of seven Big Ten teams who'll be in the national tournament. The other teams are, in addition to Washington: UCLA, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oregon and Michigan.
Washington will enter the national tournament with multiple All-Big Ten selections. Infielders Giselle Alvarez and Alexis DeBoer made the first team, pitcher Morgan Reimer made the the second team, DeBoer made the All-Defensive team at first base and infielder Melody Acevedo and outfielder Kaycie Burdick made the Big Ten All-Freshman team.
The Huskies game against South Florida will air on ESPN.
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