May 11, 2004

VILLANOVA, PA. - Details are available for the 2004 Big East Conference Softball Tournament. Villanova will join Notre Dame, Seton Hall and Boston College in the double-elimination event that will decide the league's automatic invitation to the NCAA Tournament.

The tournament will run from Thursday, May 13 to Saturday, May 15, with all games being played at the Syracuse Softball Stadium in Syracuse, N.Y. Thursday's opening game will feature No. 2 Seton Hall (41-17, 12-8) versus head coach Maria DiBernardi's No. 3 Wildcats (31-24, 12-8) at 5:00 p.m. At 7:00 p.m., defending tournament champion and 2004 regular season champion Notre Dame (46-16, 18-2) will take on No. 4 Boston College (33-23, 11-9).

The winners of Thursday's games will meet at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, with the losers playing at 5:00 p.m. The final game of the day is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. On Saturday, the championship is slated for 1:00 p.m., with the "if necessary" game played two hours later.

Directions can be found on the right hand side of the Villanova softball page on www.villanova.com.

The Big East Conference and Syracuse University will be providing live stats and audio for those unable to make the trip. The appropriate links can be found at the Big East's official website, www.bigeast.org.

Also of note, the All-Conference honors will be announced on Thursday morning.

For scores and highlights of Villanova softball at the 2004 Big East Tournament, log on to www.villanova.com or call 888-400-NOVA.