June 20, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern has finished the season ranked No. 4 in both the NFCA/USA Today coaches poll and the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll after making its second-consecutive appearance in the semifinals at the Women's College World Series.
The Wildcats came into the World Series ranked No. 6 in the final regular-season versions of both polls, then moved to No. 4 after defeating both Arizona State and Baylor on their way to Semifinal Sunday in Oklahoma City.
In the NFCA poll, NU earned 532 points, 12 fewer than No. 3 Washington and 54 points more than No. 5 Baylor. National champion Arizona received 600 points, while Tennessee was No. 2 with 576 points.
The USA Softball poll had the teams arranged in the same order, with NU picking up 443 points, 15 less than Washington and 28 more than Baylor. Arizona picked up 500 points, while Tennessee was second with 480.
Northwestern began the year at No. 4 in both of the preseason polls, and never left the top 10 in the NFCA poll. The Wildcats have been ranked in the top-10 for 17-consecutive weeks and have appeared in the NFCA poll for 41-straight weeks dating back to the fourth week of 2005.
Northwestern is the only private University to ever make back-to-back appearances in the semifinals, and the only private school to ever make the championship pairing, which it did in 2006. The Wildcats are one of 12 programs to make back-to-back semifinals runs in the history of the WCWS.
Click the follow links to view the final NFCA/USA Today coaches poll and the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.