KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The University of Dayton softball team made the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament, falling to No. 3/3 Tennessee 3-0 on the first day of the national postseason tournament. The Flyer pitching corps held the Lady Vols to just four hits on the day.

Dayton moves to 33-20 on the season while Tennessee is now 41-10 overall.

KEY STATS
H - graduate student Nicolette Papavasiliou recorded the program's first-ever hit in national postseason play with her single in the third
K - graduate student Sarah Bailitz faced the final UT batter of the game, sending her down swing on the fourth pitch of the at bat
Win - Karlyn Pickens (20-6). Loss - Haven Dwyer (14-6). Save - None.

COACH'S QUOTE
"We want to express our gratitude and thanks to University of Tennessee for hosting a great event, we've had a wonderful experience thus far. We tip our hat to Tennessee and their defense and pitching staff for limiting our offense. They did a really good job of minimizing our offensive opportunities. I certainly want to say that we are proud of our team, our pitching staff combination on limiting their offensive opportunities. I thought our defense played really competitive softball and we improved our offensive at bats as the game progressed. I'm really proud of how our team competed and I thought it was a really good experience for us."
- head coach Cara Clark

UP NEXT
Dayton will now play in the Knoxville Regional's first elimination game tomorrow, squaring off against No. 24/23 Miami (Ohio). First pitch between the Flyers and RedHawks is set for 3:30 p.m. (or 35 minutes following the first game of the day) Saturday. The winner will play again immediately after in the second elimination game. For all information about and links for this weekend's games: KNOXVILLE REGIONAL CENTRAL

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