MEAC Tournament
Thursday: NSU vs. Savannah State, 1:30 p.m., Ormond Beach Sports Complex
Thursday: NSU vs. TDB, 4:30/7 p.m., Ormond Beach Sports Complex
Live Stats | Tournament Bracket

NORFOLK, Va. – Coming off their best finish ever in conference play, the Norfolk State softball team heads down to Ormond Beach, Fla., to take part in the MEAC tournament this Thursday through Saturday at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex.

NSU will play its first game on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. against Savannah State. The Spartans will then either play at 4:30 later that day if they lose or at 7 p.m. if they defeat Savannah State in the first round. The Spartans enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed from the MEAC Northern Division. Savannah State finished third in the South.

Live stats will be available for all of NSU's games here.

NSU finished 15-3 in conference play and owns a 26-20 overall record this year. It marks the most MEAC wins ever for the Spartan program and ties the 2007 team for the most overall wins in a season. This year also marks just the third time ever the Spartans will finish with a winning record since moving to Division I prior to the 1998 season, joining the '98 team that went 24-15 and the '07 team that finished 26-25.

Savannah State enters the tournament with a 24-22 overall record. The Tigers ended the year third in the Southern Division at 8-7.

Last Time between NSU and Savannah State
The Tigers swept a doubleheader from NSU earlier this year, winning 8-7 and then 12-7. Savannah State scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh in earn the victory in the first game and then used an eight-run fourth inning in game 2 to finish the sweep back on March 6 in Savannah, Ga.

Scouting Savannah State
The Tigers are led by the duo of Torrian Wright and Madison Hedderly. Wright is hitting .408 with nine doubles, 16 home runs and 51 RBI, while Hedderly bats .345 with 12 doubles, eight homers and 37 RBI. Hedderly also doubles as SSU's main pitcher, finishing with an 18-9 record and 151 strikeouts in 182.1 innings of work. She owns a 3.88 ERA this season.

The Tigers also get production from Amber Hallman (.303, 35 runs, 4 homers, 27 RBI) and Michaela Patton (.320, 36 runs, 10 doubles, 2 homers, 20 RBI) as well as several other starters hitting better than .300. The Tigers hit .301 as a team, third in the MEAC behind NSU and Delaware State.

MEAC Tournament History
After missing out on the tournament in 2010, NSU has gone 1-2 in each of the last two years. The Spartans finished as the runner-up in 2008, the only time they have advanced to the championship game. NSU came close in 2001, finishing 3-2 in the tournament and falling in the loser's bracket game that, had they won, would have sent the Spartans to the championship final.

NSU owns a 13-24 overall record in the tournament.

Conference Finish
This year marks just the third time NSU has finished better than .500 in conference play along with the '07 (13-1) and '12 teams (12-6). The Spartans finished second overall in the league in 2007 (there were no divisions that year) and third in the North in 2012. NSU's 15 conference wins this year are the most since 1991, when the program ended the year 15-3 in the CIAA.

National Rankings
After finally surpassing the 75 percent threshold for games played over the weekend needed to qualify for the NCAA national rankings, Haley Ward is up there in numerous categories. She ranks first in batting average (.504), second in the nation in doubles per game (0.49), seventh in triples (0.14), 14th in slugging percentage (.857), 17th in RBI (1.14), 21st in runs (1.06) and 23rd in on-base percentage (.531).

Morgan Boyd stands 18th in stolen bases per game (0.66) and 33rd in runs (1.00), while Alina Moriarty ranks 45th in RBI (1.00), 72nd in runs (0.91) and 74th in doubles (0.28). Melina Valles sits 69th in walks per game (0.63).

As a team, NSU sits 14th in doubles per game (1.57), 16th in batting average (.328), 20th in scoring (6.17), 56th in slugging (.449) and 86th in stolen bases per game (1.13).

Record Setting
So far this year NSU players have set D-I records for hits (Haley Ward, 60), batting average (Ward, .504), total bases (Ward, 102) and stolen bases (Morgan Boyd, 29). Ward is just ahead of the D-I records for slugging (currently at .857) and on-base percentage (.531) and is tied for the all-time record for doubles in a year (17).

Boyd needs three more runs, Alina Moriarty needs one more RBI, and Jamie Schulle needs one more win to tie those D-I records as well.

In addition, NSU needs four more doubles, two more home runs, six more hits and four more total bases to tie those D-I team records.