BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University softball team will make its 21st all-time appearance in the NCAA Division III Softball Tournament as host to regional play this Thursday-Saturday, May 15-17. IWU will battle Bethany Lutheran College to kickoff the weekend Thursday, May 15, at 11 a.m. Greenville University and Nebraska Wesleyan University round out the pod and are slated to play at 1:30 p.m.
    Illinois Wesleyan rolls into the postseason with a 33-4 overall record, having run through the regular season en route to College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin regular season and tournament titles. The Green and White posted a perfect 16-0 CCIW record before winning three in-a-row to take the league title with a 4-2 win over second-seeded Augustana College to secure the conference's automatic bid to the national tournament. Bethany Lutheran travels to Bloomington with a 28-13 overall record, earning a postseason bid by way of Upper Midwest Athletic Conference's automatic bid. The Vikings won three straight to claim the title and earn their third all-time NCAA Tournament appearance. Greenville, winners of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships, boasts an impressive 37-4 record. The Panthers battled back from a day-one loss in the SLIAC Tournament to win four straight and hoist the trophy for the first time in school history. Rounding out the weekend's pod is Nebraska Wesleyan out of the American Rivers Conference. The Prairie Wolves put together an impressive A-R-C Tournament as NWU won the league's automatic berth to the national tournament as the three-seed. It marked Nebraska Wesleyan's first league tournament championship since 1986.

POSTSEASON PLAY IS BACK IN BLO-NO: NCAA regional competition is back in Bloomington, Ill. for the first time since 2019. It is the seventh time overall that IWU has played host to an NCAA Regional, with the Titans carrying a 18-6 record when hosting the opening weekend.
Overall, IWU holds a 54-45 record in the NCAA Division III Tournament all-time. Illinois Wesleyan has made five World Series appearances (2003, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), including a runner-up finish in 2018.

IWU AGAINST THE FIELD: Illinois Wesleyan played one of the more difficult schedules in all of Division III this season, boasting the 19th-toughest schedule nationally. In fact, IWU has played eight of the other 64 teams in this year's national tournament, compiling an 8-5 record against the competition.

FEELING 22: IWU's CCIW Tournament Championship win marked the 22nd straight for the Green and White, breaking the program's previous longest streak of 21 set during the 2014 season.

HEADLINING ALL-CCIW TEAMS: Sophomore Mallory Holland was named the CCIW Pitcher of the Year, while senior Jen Kuhn was voted the CCIW Defensive Player of the Year as the league dolled out postseason honors, May 6. Both Holland and Kuhn were First Team All-CCIW picks and were joined by Ava Khoury, Anna Beckman, and Gianna Certa. Claire Post, Casey Wissmiller, and Bella Pinter were tabbed Second Team All-CCIW.
IWU's staff was tabbed the CCIW Coaching Staff of the Year for the third straight year.

NATIONAL NODS: IWU's Mallory Holland and Ava Khoury swept the final weekly awards handed out by the NFCA, May 13. Holland was selected as the NFCA DIII Pitcher of the Week, with Khoury snagging Hitter of the Week status. Holland threw 12.1 innings over the course of the CCIW Tournament, earning two saves and a win. Khoury hit a whopping .625 for the three-game run, boasting a 1.750 slugging percentage alongside three homers and seven RBIs.
It marks the first time a Titan has received the national player of the week honor since 2020, when Ally Wiegand received the distinction.

HOMEGROWN: The Titan roster is home to five student-athletes native to the Bloomington-Normal area, while all but two players on the 23-person roster hail from Illinois. Annika Brown and Tessa Bittner are products of Normal Community. Casey Wissmiller, a Bloomington, Ill. native, hails from the same high school as head coach Tiffany Prager (Olympia). Claire Post is a Normal West graduate, while Jen Kuhn is a University High product.

HEY BATTER, BATTER: Illinois Wesleyan boasts one of the top offenses in all of Division III this season, highlighted by an entire starting lineup with batting averages north of .320. As a team, IWU is hitting .352 on the season, good for 24th-best nationally. With 383 hits on the year, the Titans rank 41st across Division III, while their 32 homers are 15th-most and their slugging (.513) is 18th.
Individually, Jen Kuhn tops IWU with a hefty .476 batting average and paces the team with 68 hits and 55 RBIs. Ava Khoury follows with a .385 clip and ranks second with 44 driven in, while her eight homers are tied with Claire Post for the team lead. Kuhn's 63 hits rank 23rd-most across Division III and her RBI total is 12th-most.

DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS: Illinois Wesleyan has benefited from one of the best defenses in all of Division III this season as the Titans hold a team fielding percentage of .971. The impressive mark is 21st-best nationally, but is the second-best of any team competing at this weekend's regional. Greenville holds the 18th-highest team fielding percentage in the country at .972. Meanwhile, Bethany Lutheran is 55th (.966) and Nebraska Wesleyan is 75th at .964.

LIMITED INTERCATIONS: Illinois Wesleyan holds a 1-0 combined record against this weekend's regional opponents all-time, having never faced Greenville or Nebraska Wesleyan. The Titans are 1-0 against their opening day opponent, Bethany Lutheran, having toppled the Vikings, 20-3, March 10, 2020.

34 TROTS: With a solo homer in the CCIW Championship game, Ava Khoury broke Illinois Wesleyan's career homerun record with the 34th blast of her career. Khoury, who is well-known for her trots around the bases, broke the record previously held by former Titan great Sam Berghoff. The mark had stood since 2020, with Khoury hitting eight bombs her freshman year, 15 her sophomore season, three in 2024, and eight as a senior as of May 14.

CLOSING IN: Senior Jen Kuhn has put together a monstrous senior season in the Green and White, setting career-highs across nearly every statistical category. Earlier this season, Kuhn broke the program's career doubles record and currently has 48 two-baggers to her name.
Furthermore, Kuhn is closing in on yet another career record. With 224 hits during her four-year career, she sits just two behind the all-time record held by Jillian Runyon. Runyon recorded 226 career hits from 2016 to 2019.

IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY: Freshman pitcher Rhea Mardjetko is no stranger to IWU softball, having spent plenty of time around Inspiration Field during her oldest sister Nina Mardjetko's time donning the Green and White. Nina, an All-CCIW pitcher for the Titans, is one of two older sisters that have played collegiately ahead of Rhea as Sage Mardjetko is currently a pitcher for the University of Tennessee after spending one year at the University of South Carolina.

ON THE HORIZON: The winner of the Bloomington regional advances to the super regional weekend of the tournament to face the winner of the Linfield regional, May 22-23.