North Dakota State University (35-18) makes its first NCAA Division I Softball Championship appearance this weekend at the Norman Regional ... NDSU won the 2009 Summit League Softbal Championship on May 8-9 in Macomb, Ill. ... The Bison square off with No. 7-seed Oklahoma (40-14) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 15 ... The Sooners are ranked 9th in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate and 10th in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25s ... OU lost in the Big 12 Championship game to Missouri ... The other opening round game has Conference USA champion Tulsa (38-15) taking on the Southeastern Conference member Arkansas (27-27) at 5 p.m. Friday ... The double-elimination tournament continues on Saturday, May 16, and Sunday, May 17 ... The winner of the Norman Regional advances to the Super Regionals on May 21-24 against the Tempe Regional comprised of 10th-seeded Arizona State (40-16), LSU (32-16-1), Cal State Fullerton (29-19) and San Diego State (33-18) ... Here's the schedule for the double-elimination regional tournament:

NCAA Division I Softball Regional (Norman, Oklahoma, OU Softball Complex, Marita Hynes Field)

Friday, May 15

Tulsa (38-15) vs. Arkansas (27-27), 5 p.m.

Oklahoma (40-14) vs. North Dakota St. (35-18), 7:30 p.m

Saturday, May 16

Game 3 - Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 1 p.m.

Game 4 - Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 3:30 p.m.

Game 5 - Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner, 6 p.m.

Sunday, May 17

Game 6 - Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 1 p.m.

Game 7 - Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 3:30 p.m., if necessary

For more regional information/live stats/video, please visit www.soonersports.com/ncaa/2009_softball_regional.html

Ticket Information: Tickets must be purchased through the University of Oklahoma athletics ticket office ... Tickets can be purchased by calling 405/325-2424 or 800/456-GoOU (4668) ... Ticket prices are: All Session Reserved: $40.00; All Session GA – Adult: $25.00; All Session GA – Youth: $20.00; Single Session Reserved: $15.00; Single Session GA – Adult: $10.00; Single Session GA – Youth: $8.00.

In The NCAA Tournament: North Dakota State makes its first apperance in the NCAA Division I tournament after seven straight NCAA Division II tournament appearances from 1998 to 2004 ... That includes the 2000 Division II national championship and four national tourney appearances ... NDSU was 24-15 in Division II tournament play ... Oklahoma won the 2000 NCAA Division I national championship with a 66-8 record ... The Sooners are making their 16th straight appearance including five trips to the Women’s College World Series ... OU is 50-29 in tournament play ... Tulsa makes its third appearance overall and second straight ... The Golden Hurricane are 0-4 in tournament play ... Arkansas is making its fourth appearance overall and second straight ... The Lady Razorbacks are 3-6 in tourney play.

The Series: North Dakota State opened the 2006 season at then 10th-ranked Oklahoma ... The Sooners defeated NDSU 9-0 and 7-2 ... OU leads the series 2-0 ... Three current players, senior catcher Kelly Cantrell, senior third baseman Jackie Currie and senior pitcher Andi Padilla each saw action ... Cantrell and Currie both started at OU ... Cantrell went 1 for 2 with two walks and one run scored ... Currie went 1 for 4 with 1 RBI ... Padilla pitched an inning in relief ... The Bison are 0-3 against nationally-ranked teams this season (at Arizona) and 0-15 since moving to Division I in 2005 ... NDSU is 5-33 against the Big 12 overall (1-0 Texas Tech, 2-4 Kansas, 2-6 Iowa State, 0-2 Oklahoma, 0-7 Missouri, 0-14 Nebraska) ... The series between North Dakota State and Arkansas is tied at 2-2 ... Arkansas defeated NDSU 3-0 at the 2006 Lady Razorback Invitational ... The Bison won two of three meetings against Arkansas at the 2007 Nebraska Big Red Invitational ... NDSU won 10-0 and 6-5, and lost 2-1 ... Five current players have seen action against Arkansas including first baseman Melissa Chmielewski, second baseman Laurel Pipkin, Cantrell, Currie and Padilla ... Chmielewski hit .556 (5-9) in three games with a double, triple and five RBI ... Pipkin hit .250 (2-8) in three games with a stolen base ... Cantrell hit .250 (3-12) in four games with four runs scored and two runs scored ... Cantrell also threw out 1 of 2 runners attempting to steal and recorded a pickoff ... Currie hit .200 (2-10) with a home run, double and two RBI ... NDSU is 2-3 against the SEC (2-2 Arkansas, 0-1 South Carolina) ... North Dakota State and Tulsa would meet for the first time ... The Bison were scheduled to play at the 2008 Tulsa Festival that was canceled due to weather ... NDSU is 2-1 against Conference USA (1-0 Memphis, 1-1 Central Florida).

North Dakota State Claims Summit League Tourney Title: Andi Padilla and North Dakota State University worked out of bases loaded jams in the last two innings to defeat Western Illinois University 3-2 to claim the Summit League Softball Championship and advance to the NCAA Division I Tournament on May 9 before 245 spectators at McKee Stadium in Macomb, Ill. ... Padilla (23-10) earned the tournament MVP award, particulary over the final two innings of the second championship game ... She went 3-1 over the weekend with a 1.52 earned run average in 27.2 innngs pitched ... Padilla was joined on the Summit League all-tournament by senior catcher Kelly Cantrell, junior center fielder Taylor Lynn, sophomore left fielder Elisa Victa and freshman third baseman Brea Konz ... Konz hit .444 (4-9) with a double and three RBI ... Lynn hit .400 (4-10) with one RBI, and also turned in several standout plays in the outfield ... Victa hit .333 (4-12) with two runs scored and nailed a runner at the plate with a throw in the sixth inning of the second championship game ... Cantrell hit .200 (2-10) with a home run, three RBI, three walks, two runs scored and a pair of sacrifice flies.

Kelly Cantrell Named Summit League Player of the Year, Five NDSU Players Receive League Honors: North Dakota State University catcher Kelly Cantrell captured Summit League Player of the Year accolades ... Cantrell, a senior from Omaha, Neb., collected the award after hitting .323 (40-for-124) with five home runs, 35 RBI, 13 doubles and a .548 slugging percentage on the year ... Defensively, Cantrell picked-off nine baserunners this season, including eight in Summit League play ... Cantrell threw out 13-of-26 opposing baserunners attempting to steal and 8-of-10 in league action ... First baseman Melissa Chmielewski, left fielder Elisa Victa, pitcher Andi Padilla and Cantrell were named to the all-Summit League first team, while center fielder Taylor Lynn was named to the second team ... Chmielewski, Victa and Cantrell each made their second straight appearance on the all-league team.

Melissa Chmielewski Makes Grade, Named to ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District First Team: North Dakota State University first baseman Melissa Chmielewski was selected to ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VII University Division softball team announced on May 7 ... The team is selected by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) ... Chmielewski makes her first appearance on the all-district team ... Chmielewski, a junior from Circle Pines, Minn. (Centennial H.S.), maintains a 3.76 grade point average majoring in physical education ... She advances to the national ballot for the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® team, which will be announced Wed., May 27.

Quickly Around The Horn: North Dakota State is ranked 11th in fielding percentage (.975) and double plays in the NCAA Division I softball statistics through games played May 10 ... NDSU is on a school record fielding percentage pace -- previous best was .968 in 2004 ... The Bison are currently fielding at .975 with only 40 errors in 1,583 fielding chances ... NDSU has 26 double plays to its credit through 53 games ... The school single-season record is 29 set in 1996 ... North Dakota State is ranked 83rd in the NCAA Division I softball RPI through games played May 10 ... Due to the epic Red River flood and late March-early April snow, the Bison played their first home games during the final week of the regular season, winning four of five games ... Two Summit League series scheduled for Fargo were played at Iowa State University (April 2-3 vs. IUPUI) and at the University of Minnesota (April 10-11 vs. Oakland) ... NDSU was 15-14 in away games and 16-3 in neutral site games ... Senior catcher Kelly Cantrell (Omaha, Neb.) is ranked 3rd nationally in sacrifice flies (5) and 15th in walks (0.75 bbpg, 39 bb in 52 games) ... Cantrell is five free passes from tying Jessie Benson's single-season mark of 44 free passes in 2003 ... North Dakota State has three players hitting over .300 ... Sophomore left fielder Elisa Victa (Laguna Hills, Calif.) is hitting .360 with 34 runs scored and 18 RBI ... Victa has had the longest hitting streak this season at 10 games ... Junior first baseman Melissa Chmielewski (Circle Pines, Minn.) is hitting .347 with nine home runs and 48 RBI ... Chmielewski has a team-high 18 multi-hit and 14 multi-RBI games to her credit ... Cantrell is hitting .313 with six home runs and 38 RBI ... With 14 multi-RBI games, Cantrell is tied for the team lead ... Senior righthander Andi Padilla (Chino, Calif.) leads the pitching staff with a 23-10 record and 2.12 ERA ... Padilla has a pair of saves and two shutouts to her credit ... Padilla entered the 2009 season with only 12 wins thru her first three seasons ... Senior righthander Kim Westendorf (Mankato, Minn.) went 8-1 against The Summit League this spring ... Freshman third baseman Brea Konz (Sioux Falls, S.D.) tied a NDSU single-game record when hit by pitch twice in the 4-2 win over Southern Utah (5-8-09) ... Including Konz, eight different players have been hit by pitch twice in a game ... North Dakota State set a school single-game record with 18 runners left on base in the 11-inning marathon against Oakland (4-10-09) ... The previous record was 14 against West Florida (3-8-97) ... Collectively, the Bison are hitting .287 with a 2.85 earned run average and is fielding at .975 ... NDSU opponents are hitting .257 with a 3.51 ERA and fielding at .952 ... The Bison are averaging 4.55 runs scored per game ... On the NDSU career charts, Cantrell is 1st in fielding chances (1,392), 2nd in walks (118) and putouts (1207), 3rd in fielding percentage (.993), 6th in home runs (24), 7th in RBI (141) and doubles (38), 8th in at bats (618), and 10th in hits (195) and games played (220) ... Chmielewski is tied for 4th in home runs (27), 5th in RBI (149) and putouts (998), and tied for 8th in batting average (.354) ... Senior third baseman Jackie Currie (Corona, Calif.) is tied for 8th in sacrifices (26) ... The big inning has been the FIRST for North Dakota State with 44 runs scored, NDSU has also scored 43 times in the third frame ... The Bison have scored 157 of their 241 runs during the first four innings ... Including the 11-inning win over Oakland (4-10-09), the Bison are 5-4 in extra innings this season ... NDSU is 31-16 in extra innings under head coach Darren Mueller since 2002 ... North Dakota State is 44-37 overall in extra innings overall ... With a 14-2 record during The Summit League 2008 regular season, North Dakota State won its first league title in softball since the 2002 North Central Conference tournament ... The Bison weren't eligible for the league's postseason tournament because the program was in the final year of reclassfication from NCAA Division II to Division I ... North Dakota State finished with a 37-17 record in 2008 -- the most wins for NDSU as a Division I program and surpassed 2007's 34 win season ... The Bison have posted three straight 30-plus win seasons ... With the sweep of Southern Utah (5-3-08), head coach Darren Mueller recorded career win No. 250 ... North Dakota State was 90th in the 2008 NCAA Softball RPI (Ratings Percentage Index), first among Summit League schools ... The Bison finished No. 135 in 2007, No. 176 in 2006 and No. 195 in 2005.

Quick Draw Cantrell: Senior catcher Kelly Cantrell (Omaha, Neb.) has thrown out 14 of 27 opposing baserunners attempting to steal in 2009 ... Cantrell has gunned down 75 of 158 runners overall during her career ... She has picked off nine runners in 2009 and 25 during her career ... Cantrell has a .993 fielding percentage with only 10 errors in a school record 1,378 fielding chances during her career ... Offensively, Cantrell is hitting .323 with five home runs and 35 RBI.

Pair of No-Hitters For Padilla: Senior pitcher Andi Padilla (Chino, Calif.) inked her name into the North Dakota State record book with a pair of no-hitters this season ... Her first diamond gem came March 18 during the second game against Creighton University, a 3-0 win ... Padilla struck out six and walked three to pick up her second career shutout ...  Her second diamond gem came three days later, March 21, in the final game of a three-game series at UMKC ... Padilla faced 15 batters over the five innings in the 14-0 victory over UMKC ... She struck out one and issued no walks ... Padilla has a career-high 22 wins and recorded her third career save at Western Illinois (4-17-09) ... Padilla struck out a career-high nine batters in the 7-inning 5-1 win over Oakland (4-11-09) ... She had only 12 career wins entering the 2009 season.

Padilla Two-Time Summit League Pitcher of the Week, Chmielewski Earns Summit Player of the Week Honor Twice: Senior righthander Andi Padilla has been named The Summit League Pitcher of the Week twice this season -- Feb. 16 and March 23 -- by the league office ... Junior first baseman Melissa Chmielewski has been named The Summit League Player of the Week twice this season -- March 16 and April 6.

Chmielewski Ties Single-Game HR Record: First baseman Melissa Chmielewski hit a pair of home runs to tie the school single-game record as North Dakota State defeated Jackson State 25-1 on Feb. 13, in the opening game of the Hampton Inn Lion Classic ... Chmielewski went 4 for 5 with two home runs, a double, four runs scored and six RBI against Jackson State ... She tied the NDSU single-game for the second time in her career ... Chmielewski has 27 career home runs and is tied for 4th on the all-time charts ... Nine different Bison players have matched the single-game home run record on 13 occasions including Kelly Cantrell, who has done it twice in her career ... Ten different players scored and eight had at least one hit for NDSU, which also took advantage of eight walks and five JSU errors ... The Bison finished with 21 RBI overall to break the previous school record of 20 set against Bluefield State (W.Va.) on March 16, 1998.

Bison Preseason 2009 Summit League Favorite: North Dakota State was chosen as the preseason favorite to claim the 2009 Summit League softball title in a poll among the league’s nine head coaches ... The Bison, who won the 2008 league regular season title, garnered seven first-place votes and received 63 total points to take the top spot in the poll ... Defending tournament champion Western Illinois claimed the remaining two first-place votes for a total of 56 points as the Westerwinds were chosen to finish second ... Centenary collected 48 points, followed by South Dakota State with 41 points ... Southern Utah (38 points) and Oakland (31 points) took the fifth and sixth spots, respectively ... Rounding out the poll were IPFW (18 points), UMKC (15 points) and IUPUI (14 points) ... Led by the 2008 Coach of the Year Darren Mueller, North Dakota State returns last season’s Player of the Year in Melissa Chmielewski and Freshman of the Year Elisa Victa ... Chmielewski, a junior first baseman, finished the 2008 season with a league-high 12 homers, 52 RBI and a .398 batting average en route to being named to the All-Summit League first team ... Victa was named to The Summit League second team after hitting .304 with 18 RBI last season.

Chmielewski, Bakke Earn 2008 NFCA All-Midwest Region Second-Team Honors: North Dakota State pitcher Allison Bakke and first/third baseman Melissa Chmielewski were selected to the 2008 National Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Midwest Region second team by vote of region coaches ... Bakke and Chmielewski are the first Bison players to receive NFCA All-Midwest Region Division I honors ... The Midwest Region is comprised of teams from the Big 12 Conference, Missouri Valley, St. Louis University, UMKC, South Dakota State and NDSU ... Bakke, a senior from Anoka, Minn. (Anoka H.S.), was named 2008 Summit League Pitcher of the Year. She finished the season with a 23-8 record, six shutouts, three saves and a 1.66 earned run average. Bakke struck out 194 and walked 49 in 177.1 innings pitched. She limited opponents to a .203 batting average ... Chmielewski was named the 2008 Summit League Player of the Year ... She hit .398 with 12 home runs and 52 runs batted in while starting all 54 games at either first or third base ... Chmielewski scored 32 runs, drew 22 walks and hit nine doubles. She hit .424 with runners in scoring position and had 18 two-out RBI.

Bison Sweep 2008 Summit League Awards: Regular-season softball champion North Dakota State swept the major awards in The Summit League, as sophomore Melissa Chmielewski was named Player of the Year, senior Allison Bakke was named Pitcher of the Year, Elisa Victa was selected as Freshman of the Year and Darren Mueller was named Coach of the Year in a vote of the league’s nine head coaches ... North Dakota State placed a league-best six players on the All-Summit League squads, while Centenary had five and South Dakota State had four players on the teams ... Southern Utah placed three on the all-league teams, while Western Illinois and Oakland each had two representatives ... Senior pitcher Bekki Rasmussen and junior catcher Kelly Cantrell, sophomore second baseman Laurel Pipkin joined Chmielewski and Bakke on the first team, while Victa was named to the second team.

The Mueller File: Darren Mueller is in his eighth season as the head softball coach at North Dakota State ... He has compiled a 285-146 record (.661) including 36-7 (.837) against league competition ... Earned 2008 Summit League Coach of the Year honors ... Mueller was named the 2007 and 2006 Division I Independent Coach of the Year ... Mueller is assisted by Jamie Trachsel, Darcy Byrne and Destiny Frankenstein ... Mueller is in his 15th year with the NDSU softball program ... He was part of a coaching staff that guided the Bison to a seven-year record of 339-125 and six straight winning seasons ... The 2000 NCAA national championship team posted a 68-10 ledger to set a Division II record for most wins in a season ... North Dakota State made six straight NCAA tourney appearances including back-to-back national championship tourney trips in 1999 and 2000, and 2002 and 2003 ... Mueller, Mike McLeod and former head coach Mitch Hanson was selected the 2000 Speedline Division II National Coaching Staff of the Year ... The trio were also named the 1999 and 2000 Speedline Division II North Central Regional Coaching Staff of the Year by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association ... Mueller has been active on the local softball scene for more than a decade, and were named to the All-World tournament team in 2000. He also earned All-American honors in 1996 ... Mueller is a Fargo native who earned his bachelor's degree in physical education from NDSU in 1994.

Division I Certification: North Dakota State received NCAA certification last summer for active status as a Division I member in all sports. The Bison were not eligible for the NCAA tournament during the five-year reclassification from Division II. NDSU announced its reclassification plan in 2002-03, started the transition with an exploratory year in 2003-04 while remaining in Division II, spent three seasons as a Division I independent from 2004-07, and joined The Summit League in 2007-08 but was not eligible for the league tournament.