Regis Softball Ready to Open 2024 Season
2024 REGIS COLLEGE SOFTBALL SCHEDULE
WESTON, Mass. - The Regis College softball team heads to Florida Saturday to start the 2024 season with 10 contests as part of The Spring Games, followed by 30 scheduled games back in New England, including 18 games within the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC).
The Pride will face 10 different opponents in Florida, including six teams for the first time in program history. Regis will play two games per day from Sunday, March 3, through Friday, March 8, with a day off Wednesday, March 6. This is the 15th straight season the team will open the season in either Florida or South Carolina during Spring Break.
Two weeks after returning home, Regis begins the rest of its schedule with a doubleheader at Clark Saturday, March 23, followed by the home opening doubleheader against Maine Farmington Sunday, March 24. The Pride will also play non-conference doubleheaders against Fisher (March 27), at Eastern Nazarene (April 3), against Lesley (April 10), and against Mass Maritime (April 24).
Regis starts its 18-game GNAC slate with road doubleheaders at preseason GNAC South Division favorite Johnson and Wales Saturday, April 6, and at Albertus Magnus Sunday, April 7. The next weekend sees back-to-back home doubleheaders for the Pride against Elms Saturday, April 13, and Lasell Sunday, April 14.
The Pride will play cross-divisional twinbills against GNAC North Division favorite Simmons Wednesday, April 17, and at Emmanuel Saturday, April 20. Regis will host conference newcomer Mitchell College on Senior Day Sunday, April 21, before closing out the league schedule against Dean Saturday, April 27, and at University of Saint Joseph Sunday, April 28.
The top five teams in each division at the end of the regular season will qualify for the 2024 GNAC Softball Championship Tournament, which will begin with a single-elimination first round featuring the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds in each division on Tuesday, April 30. Following the first round games, the teams will be split into two four-team, double-elimination pods. Pod play will take place from Thursday, May 2 to Sunday, May 5 with the winners of each pod advancing to a best-of-three GNAC Championship Series. The championship series is scheduled for Friday-Saturday, May 10-11, with the winner earning the title of 2024 GNAC Softball Champion and the league's automatic qualifier into the 2024 NCAA Division III Softball Championship.
In the preseason poll of the conference coaches, Regis finished sixth in the GNAC South with 42 points. Johnson and Wales finished atop the division with 10 first place votes and 113 points overall, followed by Albertus Magnus and Lasell. Simmons received 11 first place votes to end up first in the GNAC North, with Emmanuel and Saint Joseph's College behind the defending champion Sharks.
The Regis College softball team welcomes back Second Team All-GNAC outfielder Bianca Burke (Cambridge, Mass.), who set the program's single-season hits and runs scored records in 2023, and Third Team All-GNAC designated player Lexi Nichols (Granby, Conn.). Seniors Marissa Allen (Coventry, R.I.), Chloe Beland (Southborough, Mass.), Jaylene Deslauriers (Taunton, Mass.), and Abby Erickson (Worcester, Mass.) and sophomore Madi Zancan (Cumberland, R.I.) also return in 2024, and the Pride welcome several newcomers to the program looking to continue the team's improvement under second-year head coach Ellie Adams.