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For the third year in a row, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater softball team has secured the top seed and the right to host the three-day, five-team Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship (presented by Culver's). Competition will begin Friday, May 3 at van Steenderen Softball Complex in Whitewater.
 
Tickets for tournament cost $5 per adult, $3 for WIAC faculty/staff with identification, $3 for youth and seniors, and free for WIAC students with ID and children 4 years of age and younger. All costs are per day.
 
The Warhawks, 26-10 overall, claimed their third straight WIAC regular season championship, fifth in the last six years and 13th in program history with an 11-3 record in league play during the regular season.
 
The top-seeded Warhawks will face off against the winner of the first game of the championship at 2 p.m. Friday against the winner of fourth-seeded UW-La Crosse and fifth-seeded UW-Oshkosh, who play at 10 a.m. That game will be followed by a contest between second-seeded UW-Eau Claire and third-seeded UW-Platteville at noon. An elimination game between the losers of Game 1 and Game 2 will follow at 4 p.m.
 
The double-elimination championship will resume on Saturday at 10 a.m. with three more games and then the championship game, or games, will take place on Sunday beginning at 10 a.m.
 
The winner of the postseason championship will be awarded with the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA III Championship.
 
After returning from their annual spring trip to Florida with a 7-5 record, the Warhawks started conference play with a convincing sweep over UW-Stevens Point on the road.
 
A pair of wins over the University of Chicago were followed by splits with Carroll University and UW-Oshkosh.
 
The Warhawks then swept UW-River Falls before splitting with UW-Stout and No. 4 ranked Illinois Wesleyan, all at home.
 
UW-W concluded the regular season by winning nine of their last 10, including a sweep of UW-Eau Claire in their final two games to clinch the WIAC title and top-seed in the upcoming championship.
 
Bella Matthias (Greenfield, Wis./Greenfield), Julia Camardo (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) and Dani Biesiada (Lisle, Ill./Naperville North) have combined to pitch 241.1 innings resulting in a 1.75 ERA, tops in the WIAC by more than 0.5 runs.
 
Matthias and Camardo have combined to start 32 of the Warhawks' 36 games, and both reside among the top five in the league in wins and strikeouts. Matthias is tops in the conference averaging 9.39 Ks per game while the next closest is under six.
 
Biesiada has racked up five saves this season to lead the conference and is second to only Matthias in opponent batting average.
 
At the plate, UW-W uses a variety of players for optimal efficiency.
 
Emily Rux (Chicago, Ill./Mother McAuley) leads the team in average (.355), Caitlin Catino (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) has the highest slugging percentage (.578) and Meg Cohrs (Elburn, Ill./Kaneland) has racked up the most RBI (23). The trio of all-conference performers has also combined to score a quarter of the Warhawks' runs, tally nearly half of the doubles and triples and drive in more than a third of the team's runs.
 
Seniors Kayla Seymour (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West) and Kelly Berglund (Menomonee Falls, Wis./Menomonee Falls), along with sophomore Vera Pflugradt (Lake Zurich, Ill./Stevenson), are regular starters and hit over .300 while scoring 15 or more runs each.
 
Sophomore outfielder Kaiden Jackson (Schaumburg, Ill./Schaumburg) is second on the team in runs scored (21) and has stolen a team-leading five bases.
 
UW-W is a combined 20-2 in the last six seasons in the WIAC Championship, winning the title each year. The Warhawks have won more titles (10) than any other team in conference history.