Northwestern Tournament Notes in PDF Format
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2006 Big Ten Tournament Bracket in PDF FormatDownload Free Acrobat Reader
Northwestern's Official Big Ten Tournament Web site
EVANSTON, Ill. -- For the first time in its 13-year history, the Big Ten Tournament is being held someplace other than Iowa City, Iowa, or Ann Arbor, Mich. By virtue of No. 11 Northwestern's first Big Ten title since 1987, Evanston, Ill., will provide the backdrop for the eight-team event beginning Thursday, May 11 and concluding Saturday, May 13.
Northwestern is the No. 1 seed and opens up at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11 against No. 8 Illinois. The tournament's first game is at 2 p.m. Thursday and features No. 2 Michigan versus No. 7 Michigan State.
Friday morning at 9 a.m., No. 3 Iowa and No. 6 Indiana face off before No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Penn State play the final first round game at 11:30 a.m.
The two semifinal games are slated for 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Friday afternoon, while the championship will be televised live on CSTV at noon Saturday.
The Wildcats compiled a 16-3 Big Ten record to win the fifth outright conference title in program history. NU's .842 winning percentage is the seventh-best in Big Ten history, and the 'Cats' 40-win regular season marks just the second time in school history that has happened.
Northwestern boasts one of the premier pitching staffs in the nation, currently standing as one of just two schools with a pair of 20-game winners. Senior Courtnay Foster (Tucson, Ariz./Sahuaro) is 20-6, while junior Eileen Canney (Paradise, Calif./Paradise) has a 20-5 overall record.
Junior Garland Cooper (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) won her third Big Ten batting title with a .471 average, while junior Katie Logan (Tempe, Ariz./Sahuaro) finished as the conference leader in hits (29) and freshman Tammy Williams (Roscoe, Mo./Osceola) led the league with 55 runs and eight homers.
Canney finished as the conference's ERA champ with a 0.50 mark and 10-1 overall record.
For Northwestern's complete Big Ten Tournament notes package, click on the .pdf link at the top of this page.
THE BROADCASTS!
NUsports.com ALL-ACCESS
Every game of the tournament will be Web cast live with streaming audio and video for the first time in the history of the event. The streams are available at NUsports.com, bigten.org and CSTV.com FREE OF CHARGE.
Northwestern student-radio WNUR 89.3 FM will provide the audio and video coverage for the first two rounds before Saturday's live telecast of the championship game by CSTV. That telecast also will be available online via All-Access.
To access the broadcasts, visit the special tournament page at NUsports.com by navigating to the home page and clicking on the 2006 Big Ten Softball Tournament logo.
WNUR 89.3
Northwestern student-radio WNUR 89.3 FM will broadcast live all of Northwestern's games in the Big Ten Tournament.
Gametracker
Gametracker is available at NUsports.com for every game of the 2006 Big Ten Softball Tournament.