Complete NCAA Tournament bracket

For the fifth consecutive season and the 13th time in school history, the Grand Valley State softball team has advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Announced on Monday morning (May 4), the Lakers were rewarded for their strong season and given the #4 seed in the Midwest Region, where they will face #5 Southern Indiana on Friday (May 8) in St. Louis, Mo.

GVSU will take a 32-15 overall record into this weekend's tournament, where it will take on a Southern Indiana team that is 37-9 this season. The host school, Missouri-St. Louis, is the #1 seed in the Midwest Region and was recently ranked #2 in the latest NFCA Top-25 poll. UMSL will face #8 Wayne State in the other contest; both teams won their respective conference tournaments on Sunday (May 2).

Grand Valley State and Southern Indiana will play the opening game of the double-elimination tournament at 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday, while Missouri-St. Louis and Wayne State will follow at 3:30 p.m. There will be three games on Saturday, with the championship scheduled for Sunday. Here is a look at the weekend schedule:

Friday, May 8
Game 1: #4 Grand Valley State (32-15) vs. #5 Southern Indiana (37-9), 1:00 p.m. ET

Game 2: #1 Missouri-St. Louis (44-6) vs. #8 Wayne State (42-18), 3:30 p.m. ET

Saturday, May 9
Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 12:00 p.m. ET

Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 2:30 p.m. ET

Game 5: Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 5:00 p.m. ET

Sunday, May 10
Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5, 1:00 p.m. ET

Game 7: Same teams as above, if necessary, 3:30 p.m. ET

The above games are in the Midwest 1 Regional Tournament, while there are four teams in the Midwest 2 Regional Tournament. That bracket will be hosted by #2 Indianapolis and include #3 Ashland, #6 Truman State, and #7 Trevecca Nazarene. The winners of both sub-regionals will play in a best-of-three Super Regional series at the highest remaining seed, with the winner advancing to the Division II College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The fifth straight NCAA tournament appearance for the Lakers is the second-longest streak in school history, trailing just the six-year tournament run for GVSU from 1999 to 2004. Overall in  13 NCAA Tournament berths, Grand Valley State is 36-25 with a pair of World Series appearances (2002, 2013).

There will be a full tournament preview later this week.