INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The No. 9 Emory & Henry College Softball Team is the fourth-ranked team in the NCAA Division III Atlantic Region in the second ranking period of the 2021 season, NCAA officials announced late Thursday. These rankings, combined with the automatic qualifiers given to conference champions, are the official means of determining the field for the NCAA Division III Tournament. Two more sets of rankings will be released on Thursday, May 13 and Monday, May 17 along with the 48-team national tournament bracket.
RELATED - NCAA Division III Regional Rankings
Emory & Henry (26-7) reached the semifinal series of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament, falling to University of Lynchburg by a 2-1 series score. The Wasps are ranked in the region for the 11th time in the last 12 periods dating back to April 27, 2017.
No. 2 Virginia Wesleyan University is the top team in the region this week after advancing to the ODAC Tournament Championship series. T-12th nationally-ranked Salisbury University is No. 2 while Southern Athletic Association champion and No. 5 Birmingham-Southern College falls two places to third.
E&H is one of four ODAC schools ranked in the top nine of the Atlantic Region. In addition to VWU, No. 17 Randolph-Macon College is eighth and Lynchburg is ninth. Roanoke College, last week's No. 9 falls out of the rankings.
Emory & Henry will now await the announcement of the field for this year's NCAA Division III Tournament. The Wasps are chasing one of five at-large bids which will be awarded to the top programs in the country who did not earn their conference's automatic qualification. The selection show will be streamed on NCAA.com on the afternoon of Monday, May 17.
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NCAA Division III Atlantic Region Rankings
1. Virginia Wesleyan *
2. Salisbury
3. Birmingham-Southern
4. Emory & Henry *
5. Christopher Newport
6. Moravian
7. Emory
8. Randolph-Macon *
9. Lynchburg *
* denotes Old Dominion Athletic Conference school