The University of Charleston softball team begins its NCAA regional tournament at 2:30 p.m. Thursday versus West Virginia Wesleyan in Buckhannon.
The Golden Eagles (35-19) are the region's No. 7 seed and will face the No. 2-seeded Bobcats, who also are a Mountain East Conference rival. Wesleyan has won four of the five games played against UC this season.
The winner of this game will face the winner between Kutztown and Bloomsburg at 10 a.m. Friday. The losers will play each other at 12:30 p.m. Friday in the double-elimination event.
n UC standout Haleigh Christopher was named a National Fastpitch Coaches Association first-team All-Atlantic Region selection, announced Wednesday.
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MEC BASEBALL: Former Poca standout and current University of Charleston pitcher Austin Henrich was named to the All-Mountain East Conference baseball second team.
UC, which plays in the MEC tourney starting Thursday, had three other players were named to the second team - Lee Carneal, Austin Hathaway and Adam Jafine. Jack Brunetti earned All-MEC honorable mention along with West Virginia State's Phil Mandt and Colby Gainer.
Concord's Chad Frazier was named the MEC Player of the Year, Shepherd's Ryan Pansch was the league's Pitcher of the Year, and Fairmont State's Phil Caruso was Coach of the Year.
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COLLEGE SOCCER SIGNING: Winfield's Chase McVey will sign a letter of intent to play men's soccer at West Liberty at 11:45 a.m. Thursday in Winfield High School's auxiliary gym. The midfielder scored 31 goals in the regular season. He was also named the Class AA-A West Virginia Midfielder of the Year by the West Virginia Soccer Coaches Association.
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WVU, MARSHALL APR SCORES: Both WVU and Marshall reported Academic Progress Rate scores for 2016-17 on Wednesday.
WVU's combined varsity athletic teams had an APR score of 982, the school's highest in the 13 years of the NCAA's APR program. WVU's score is up three points from last year's average and eight points from two years ago.
Marshall's combined score was 980 with eight programs scoring a perfect 1,000.
The APR is based upon eligibility and retention of student-athletes on a semester-by-semester basis and is an assessment of real-time academic success. The results of the fall and spring semesters, in a given year, are calculated as that year's APR score and averaged with the respective scores from the previous three years to provide a four-year snapshot of academic achievement.
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MARSHALL SOFTBALL: Senior Morgan Zerkle and junior Taylor McCord were named to the Conference USA All-Academic team on Wednesday. It was the third selection for Zerkle and the first for McCord.
The team consists of 14 student-athletes and is voted on by the schools' sports information directors. Players from 11 schools are represented on the team. Marshall, UNC Charlotte and UTSA had the most with two players each.
Zerkle, who is an exercise science major, had a 3.72 overall GPA before the end of spring semester. A member of the 2017 USA Women's National Team, Zerkle is a finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and the Senior ClASS Award. She was named the Conference USA Player of the Year and First Team All-Conference on Tuesday.
McCord, a health science major in pre-communication disorders, had a 3.64 GPA before the end of the spring semester. The junior catcher was named to first-team all-conference on Tuesday. She is a three-time member of the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll and a 2015 recipient of the conference Academic Medal.
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MARSHALL TENNIS: The Marshall women's team signed two players, Anna Smith from Venetia, Pennsylvania, and Ana Marhuenda from Almeria, Spain, for the 2017-18 season on Wednesday.
Smith is a four-star recruit and is 77th in the national recruiting rankings. She is the No. 2 recruit from Pennsylvania. Smith's sister Stephanie will be a senior tennis player for the Herd next year.
Marhuenda plays for Club de Tennis El Ejido and is a five-time regional club champion. She also is a two-time regional champion and a two-time regional finalist in Andalucia.