OXFORD, Ala. (May 6, 2024) – The postseason has arrived for the University of North Alabama softball team, as the Lions look to make another deep run at the 2024 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship from May 7-11 at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Ala.
 
UNA will enter as the No. 5 seed for a second straight season and will play No. 8 Austin Peay in the single elimination round on Tuesday, May 7 at 5:30 p.m. The winner will advance to play No. 4 FGCU on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. while the loser will be eliminated.
 
The Lions and Govs are fresh off a three-game series in Florence and will play for a fourth straight time. Austin Peay won two of three, including a must-win game on Saturday to secure the eighth and final seed. North Alabama won game two by a decisive 8-1 final.
 
ASUN CHAMPIONSHIP
Single Elimination Round – Game 2
No. 5 North Alabama vs. No. 8 Austin Peay
Tuesday, May 7
5:30 p.m.
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NOTES
LAST TIME OUT: North Alabama ends the season winning four of its last six games, including a three-game road sweep of Bellarmine two weeks ago. This past weekend, UNA dropped two of three against an Austin Peay team fighting for a tournament spot. The Lions had already clinched their tournament spot a week before and played for seeding.
 
SCOUTING THE LIONS: UNA enters with a 34-17 overall record and finished with a 15-9 record in ASUN play. In 11 seasons under UNA head coach Ashley Cozart — including five at the Division II level and six at Division I — the Lions have never suffered a losing season. UNA is the only ASUN team ranked in the top three of all three major hitting-pitching-fielding categories, sporting a .265 batting average, 2.17 ERA and .975 fielding percentage.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT: Austin Peay is 23-28 overall and finished tied for eighth in the league standings with an 8-16 record. The Govs have also won four of their last six games, including a pair of impressive series wins over FGCU and UNA to catapult into the final ASUN tournament spot. Austin Peay finished tied with Kennesaw State, but won the tiebreaker with a higher RPI ranking.
 
SERIES HISTORY: UNA has a 7-5 all-time record against Austin Peay. The Lions and Govs met for the first time in 1990, splitting a doubleheader in Florence. Nearly 30 years went by before the next meeting, as the Lions made the move to Division I in the 2018-19 season. UNA and Austin Peay split two non-conference doubleheaders in 2019 and 2022 before becoming ASUN opponents for the first time in 2023. The Lions swept last season's series in Clarksville.
 
LET'S RUN IT BACK: Last season, UNA was the five seed in the ASUN tournament and nearly won the whole thing. The Lions defeated Jacksonville, FGCU, Central Arkansas and Liberty to make it to the championship final, where top seed Central Arkansas awaited a rematch after surviving the loser's bracket. The Bears won both games to end UNA's magical run.
 
POSTSEASON HISTORY: The Lions have made it into all five ASUN postseason tournaments since moving to Division I in 2019, as the 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID-19. UNA has a 6-8 record in the ASUN tournament, including a win over Kennesaw State in the program's first Division I postseason game in 2019. UNA also won one in 2022 before going 4-2 in 2023.
 
LAST TOURNAMENT WIN: The last time UNA won a conference tournament was 2016, back when North Alabama was a member of the Gulf South Conference. The Lions went 46-5 in the regular season and won all three GSC tournament games, including a 19-9 mercy rule win over No. 21 Valdosta State where UNA broke a school record with 18 runs in the fourth inning. This team went on to live in history, going 12-2 in the postseason and winning the 2016 Division II National Championship in Denver, Colo.
 
STRENGTH OF CONFERENCE: The Lions are one of five teams in the ASUN tournament ranked among the top 100 teams in the NCAA RPI rankings. The list includes No. 56 EKU, No. 64 FGCU, No. 71 North Florida, No. 94 Central Arkansas and No. 98 North Alabama. The other three teams are ranked above 166. There are 307 teams in the RPI rankings.
 
POSTSEASON MATCHUPS: UNA has a tough road ahead with No. 8 Austin Peay, No. 4 FGCU and No. 1 EKU awaiting as potential opponents in the winner's bracket. UNA has an all-time record of 43-38-1 against the entire tournament field and a postseason record of 3-4.
 
ALL-CONFERENCE AWARDS: Later today, the ASUN will announce Academic All-ASUN, All-ASUN and superlative awards. The academic honors will be released at 2 p.m. today, while the all-conference awards will go out at 3 p.m.
 
For more information on North Alabama Athletics, visit www.roarlions.com and follow UNA Athletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.