The 2021 NCAA Division I softball tournament was held from May 21 through June 10, 2021 as the final part of the

2021 NCAA Division I softball season The 2021 NCAA Division I Softball season, play of college softball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level, began in February 2021. The season progressed through the regular se ...

. 31 teams were awarded automatic bids as champions of their conferences after the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

opted out of the 2021 softball season. The remaining 33 were selected at-large by the NCAA Division I softball selection committee on May 16, 2021. The tournament culminated with eight teams playing in the 2021

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium OGE Energy Field at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium is a softball-specific ballpark located inside the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It seats 13,000 and is the site of the annual Women's Colleg ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

Bids

Automatic bids

The Big Ten, Big West, Mountain West, Pac-12, and West Coast Conference bids were awarded to the regular-season champion. All other conferences had their automatic bid go to the conference tournament winner.

At-large

By conference

National seeds

16 National Seeds were announced on the Selection Show, on Sunday, May 16 at 9 p.m. EDT on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

. 15 of the 16 national seeds hosted Regionals. Teams in italics advanced to Super Regionals. Teams in bold advanced to the

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Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

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Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

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Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

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Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

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Regionals and Super Regionals

The Regionals took place May 20–23. The Super Regionals took place May 27–30.

Norman Super Regional

Columbia Super Regional

Stillwater Super Regional

Gainesville Super Regional

Tuscaloosa Super Regional

Fayetteville Super Regional

Baton Rouge Super Regional

Los Angeles Super Regional

Women's College World Series

The Women's College World Series was held June 3 through June 10 in Oklahoma City.

Participants

† = ''From NCAA Division I Softball Championship Results''

Bracket

Game results

Finals

All-tournament Team

The following players were members of the Women's College World Series All-Tournament Team.

Record by conference

The columns RF, SR, WS, NS, F, and NC respectively stand for the Regional Finals, Super Regionals, College World Series Teams, National Semi-Finals, Finals, and National Champion.

Media coverage

Radio

For the first time ever

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...

will provide nationwide radio coverage of every game in the Women's College World Series. It was streamed online at westwoodsports.com, through

TuneIn TuneIn is a global audio streaming service delivering live news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users. TuneIn is operated by the company TuneIn Inc. which is based in San Francisco, California. The company ...

, and on

SiriusXM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius S ...

Ryan Radtke
and Leah Amico return as the broadcast team.

Television

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

held exclusive rights to the tournament. The network aired games across ESPN,

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the Hears ...

SEC Network The SEC Network is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which holds ...

, Longhorn Network, ACC Network and

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications ...

. For just the fourth time in the history of the women's softball tournament, ESPN covered every regional.

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

will air a super regional game for the first time in

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

history.

Broadcast assignments

''Regionals'' *Norman: Courtney Lyle & Kayla Braud *Los Angeles: Mark Neely & Kenzie Fowler *Tuscaloosa:

Eric Frede Eric Frede is an American sportscaster who has worked for NESN since 2002. He was previously the play-by-play announcer for NESN College Football Saturday broadcasts until he left NESN and joined NBC Sports Boston and is currently an anchor for ...

& Madison Shipman *Gainesville:

Beth Mowins Elizabeth Mowins (born May 26, 1967) is an American play-by-play announcer and sports journalist for ESPN, CBS, and Marquee Sports Network. She typically calls women's college sports, and became the second woman to call nationally televised col ...

& Michele Smith *Stillwater:

Clay Matvick Clay Matvick (born August 12, 1973 in Saint Cloud, Minnesota) is an American sportscaster, who works primarily as a play-by-play announcer for ABC and the ESPN networks. Background Matvick graduated from Princeton High School in 1991. He recei ...

Natasha Watley Natasha Renee Watley (born November 27, 1981) is an American, former collegiate four-time first-team All-American, two-time medal winning Olympic Games, Olympian, retired seven-time pro All-Star softball player. Watley played college softball at ...

*Fayetteville: Mike Corey & Leah Amico *Baton Rouge: Alex Loeb & Megan Willis *Columbia: Tyler Denning & Tori Vidales ''Super Regionals'' *Norman: Beth Mowins,

Jessica Mendoza Jessica Ofelia Mendoza (born November 11, 1980) is an American sportscaster and former softball player. Currently, she serves as a color commentator and analyst for ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball and Los Angeles Dodgers coverage on S ...

, Michele Smith &

Holly Rowe Holly Rowe (born June 16, 1966) is an American sports telecaster currently working for the sports television network ESPN. Rowe is best known as a sideline reporter for college football games which are telecast on ESPN. Rowe made Utah Jazz team ...

*Columbia: Mike Couzens & Carol Bruggeman *Stillwater: Tiffany Greene & Erin Miller *Gainesville: Courtney Lyle & Kayla Braud ''Women's College World Series'' *Kevin Brown, Amanda Scarborough & Jalyn Johnson (afternoons, early Fri) *Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza, Michele Smith & Holly Rowe (evenings minus early Fri) ''Regionals'' *Knoxville: Tiffany Greene & Erin Miller *Tallahassee: Jenn Hildreth & Brittany McKinney *Tucson: Jonathan Yardley &

Amanda Freed Amanda Louise Freed (born December 26, 1979) is an American, former professional softball utility player and pitcher. She played college softball for UCLA, winning the national title for the Bruins in the 1999 Women's College World Series. In ...

*Austin: Kevin Brown, Amanda Scarborough & Jalyn Johnson *Athens: Alex Perlman & Francesca Enea *Lexington: Mike Couzens & Carol Bruggeman *Tempe:

John Schriffen John David Schriffen (born October 3, 1984) is an American sports broadcaster for ESPN, calling collegiate sports and KBO League baseball for the network. Previously Schriffen acted as a reporter for CBS Sports and hosted ''That Other Pre Game S ...

Jennie Ritter Jennifer Darlene Ritter (born June 1, 1984) is an American, former collegiate All-American, retired softball pitcher and current sports commentator. She played college softball and was a starting pitcher for the Michigan Wolverines softball f ...

*Seattle:

Pam Ward Pam Ward is an on-air personality for the cable sports television network ESPN, serving as one of the play-by-play announcers for ESPN's coverage of the 2012 and 2013 Women's College World Series of Softball. She is a graduate of the University of ...

& Jenny Dalton-Hill ''Super Regionals'' *Tuscaloosa: Eric Frede & Madison Shipman *Fayetteville: Pam Ward & Jenny Dalton Hill *Baton Rouge: Kevin Brown, Amanda Scarborough & Jalyn Johnson *Los Angeles: Mark Neely & Kenzie Fowler ''Women's College World Series Finals'' *Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza, Michele Smith & Holly Rowe

References

{{2020–21 NCAA Division I championships navbox NCAA Division I softball tournament

Tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

Women's sports in Oklahoma