DePaul has captured its third consecutive regular season Conference USA championship and will be the No. 1 seed at the 2003 C-USA Softball Tournament in Houston, Texas (May 8-10). Houston's Arelis Ferreris was named the C-USA Hitter of the Week, while DePaul's Lindsay Chouinard earned Pitcher of the Week honors. Catch up on all the latest C-USA softball news in this week's Notebook.

HITTER OF THE WEEK
ARELIS FERRERIS, HOUSTON
Junior, C, Grand Prairie, Texas
Ferreris had six of Houston's 13 hits this past weekend in a three-game series against No. 19 South Florida. Ferreris denied USF's Leight Ann Ellis of a no-hitter in Saturday's game one and then went 4-for-4 in game two with three singles and one double for a 7-5 Cougar win. She also nailed a two-run home run to set her weekend total of four RBI. She currently ranks second on the team with a .337 batting average.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK
LINDSAY CHOUINARD, DEPAUL
Junior, LHP, Fresno, Calif.
Chouinard claimed three wins, including one shutout to improve to 28-4 on the season. She struck out a total of 24 batters in 23 innings and gave up only three walks and three earned runs for the week. She currently ranks second in the nation with a 0.48 ERA.


NATIONAL POLLS
USA Today/NFCA Poll (April 29)
In the most recent USA TODAY/NFCA Poll, DePaul is ranked No. 6, the highest ranking by a C-USA team since Southern Miss finished No. 6 in the final 2000 poll. South Florida also moved up in the rankings to No. 19. Here's a look at the entire poll:


1. Arizona (22)
2. UCLA
3. Texas
4. Oklahoma
5. Washington
6. DE PAUL
7. Cal-State Fullerton
8. Georgia
9. California
10. Louisiana State
11. Nebraska
12. Florida State
13. Michigan
14. Oklahoma State
15. Stanford
16. Arizona State
17. Alabama
18. South Carolina
19. SOUTH FLORIDA
20. Texas A&M
21. Oregon
22. La.-Lafayette
23. Iowa
24. Illinois
25. Southern Illinois

DEPAUL CLINCHES C-USA REGULAR SEASON TITLE
DePaul has captured its third consecutive regular season Conference USA championship and will be the No. 1 seed at the 2003 C-USA Softball Tournament in Houston, Texas. The tournament will be held May 8-10, hosted by the University of Houston at Cougar Softball Stadium.

DePaul posted a C-USA record 22-2 league ledger and has an overall mark of 43-5-1, to rank No. 6 in the latest NFCA/USA Today poll. DePaul's LINDSAY CHOUINARD, who is 28-4 this season, leads the conference and ranks second in the nation with a 0.43 ERA. The Blue Demons will look to defend their 2002 C-USA Tourney title when they face the winner of the Louisville-Southern Miss game on Thursday.

Second-seeded South Florida will be looking for its first C-USA Tournament title after finishing in second place in the regular season at 17-6 in league play and 51-15 overall. This past weekend, the Bulls claimed their 50th win of the year, marking the first time since 1998 that USF has reached this milestone. During the 1998 season, South Florida posted a 57-14 record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. The Bulls will face the winner of the Houston-UAB game.

The No. 3 seed is Houston, who garnered its highest seed ever in the tourney, finished third in the conference with a 15-9 league mark and 35-22 overall record. The Cougars will open against sixth-seeded UAB in the first round on Thursday. This season, the Cougars set the conference record for home runs with 55, breaking the old mark of 49 set by Southern Miss in 2000. UAB will look for a return trip to the championship game as the Blazers fell to DePaul in last year's championship game, 2-1.

Louisville (12-11, 21-24) will be the fourth seed and play fifth-seeded Southern Miss (12-12, 27-28) in the opening round. Senior KEOLA CALDERON has been solid this season, leading the team in RBI (22) and ranking second in batting average (.322), while the Golden Eagles have relied on junior righthander Jessica Holaway, who leads the team with a 1.93 ERA.

The championship will be a double-elimination tournament, with the champion receiving the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. The championship game on May 10 at 2 p.m. (CST) will be televised by affiliates of the Conference USA Television Network. Don Russell will announce the play-by-play with Amy Prichard, providing the commentary.

2003 Tournament Schedule
Thursday-Saturday, May 8-10
C-USA Softball Championship
Cougar Field - Houston, Texas

Thursday, May 9
G1 - (4) Louisville vs. (5) Southern Miss Noon
G2 - (3) Houston vs. (6) UAB 2:30 p.m.
G3 - (1) DePaul vs. Winner of G1 5:00 p.m.
G4 - (2) South Florida vs. Winner of G2 7:30 p.m.

Friday, May 10
G5 - Loser G2 vs. Loser G3 Noon
G6 - Loser G4 vs. Loser G1 2:30 p.m.
G7 - Winner of G3 vs. Winner of G4 5:00 p.m.
G8 - Winner of G5 vs. Winner of G6 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 11
G9 - Loser G7 vs. Winner of G8 11:00 a.m.
G10 - Championship 2:00 p.m.

Conference Games in Bold. All times Central.




Here is a look at the local stations that will be broadcasting the game:
College Sports Television (Direct TV, Ch. 610) - Live
Charter Communications (Saint Louis) - Live
Comcast Charter Sports Southeast - Live
Cox Sports TV (New Orleans) - Live
Fox Sports Net Chicago - Tape Delay at 5 p.m. CST
UNC-Charlotte Cable TV (Charlotte, N.C., Ch. 22) - TBD
WFTE-TV, UPN 58 (Louisville) - Live
WXIV-TV (Greensboro, N.C., Ch. 14) - TBD

THE C-USA CONSTANT
For the fourth straight year, C-USA has had three or more schools with 30-plus wins. This year, DePaul (43-5-1-1), South Florida (51-15) and Houston (35-22) all reached the 30-win plateau this season.

DID YOU KNOW?
South Florida's LEIGH ANN ELLIS is one of only six players in the nation to have reached 30 wins this season. Ellis currently leads the conference with a 31-7 record. Conference USA is also one of only three conferences to have two pitchers ranked in the nation's statistical leaders for victories. DePaul's LINDSAY CHOUINARD joins Ellis in the top ten with a 28-4 record. The Pac-10 (Arizona's Alicia Hollowell, 30-3 and UCLA's Keira Goerl, 30-5) and the Southeastern Conference (Georgia's Michelle Green, 37-7 and Kristin Schmidt (30-11) also have two players.




AROUND THE HORN

CHARLOTTE (14-31, 4-19 in 2003): Charlotte closed the 2003 season on April 27, falling to UAB, 6-4. It marked the final game of their collegiate career for DANA BOWERS, AMY MORSE, MELANIE THEVENOTE and BETSY THOMPSON. There were a number of highlights for the team this season. Thompson broke the school's 12-year old record for career strikeouts, finishing her career with 415. Morse finished fourth on the all-time list with 328. Thevenote's nine home runs ranks tied for fourth on the career list, while newcomer SAM MOORE hit six homers, the second-most in a season.

DE PAUL (43-5-1, 22-2 in 2003): No. 6 DePaul swept Louisville at home last weekend. The Blue Demons clinched their third consecutive C-USA regular season title and will look to defend their 2002 league tournament crown this week. SASKIA ROBERSON hit a three-run homer to lead the Blue Demons to a 6-2 win over Louisville on Sunday. LINDSAY CHOUINARD continued to be solid for DePaul, claiming three wins, including a shutout last week. In 24 innings pitched, she struck out 24 and gave up only three earned runs. For the second consecutive year, the Blue Demons broke the C-USA record for wins in regular-season play with 22. DePaul opens tournament action on Thursday against the winner of the Louisville/Southern Miss game.

EAST CAROLINA (24-31, 5-19 in 2003): The Pirates closed out the 2003 season with a three-game sweep over Saint Louis last weekend. CHRISTINE SHERIDAN went 2-for-6 including a two-RBI double in the final game that gave East Carolina a 3-2 win in the final game. This season, Sheridan led East Carolina, notching a .355 batting average, a .522 slugging percentage, 39 walks and 30 RBI. In the pitching circle, BRENTLY BRIDGFORTH has posted a team-high 82 strikeouts in 141 innings pitched. The freshman notched her first no-hitter of the season against Liberty on April 23. She allowed only two walks in the game, and struck out three batters.

HOUSTON (35-22, 15-9 in 2003): The Cougars clinched its highest seed to the C-USA Tournament, after claiming one win in a three-game series against South Florida last weekend. As the No. 3 seed, Houston will face UAB in the second game of Thursday's first round beginning at 2:30 p.m. Junior catcher ARELIS FERRERIS had six of Houston's 13 hits as the Cougars went 1-2 last weekend against No. 19 South Florida. She denied Leigh Ann Ellis of a no-hitter in game one and went 4-for-4 in game two with three singles and a double as the Cougars prevailed 7-5. Ferreris hit a two-run homer in game three (ninth) to set her weekend total of four RB. She is hitting .337 this season. KRISTEN GLOWACZ is only one dinger away from breaking the C-USA record for home runs in a season. Former Golden Eagle Amy Berman posted 14 dingers in 2000.

LOUISVILLE (21-24, 12-11 in 2003): Louisville suffered three losses to DePaul last weekend. SHANNON NORD continued to lead the Cardinals' offense, notching at least one hit per game against the Blue Demons. She ranks first on the team with a .344 batting average and 11 stolen bases this season. On Sunday, NICOLE SPARKS went 2-for-4 and claimed her team-high 10th double of the season. Louisville is the fourth seed and will face Southern Miss in Thursday' opening round of the C-USA Tournament.

SAINT LOUIS (21-18, 9-14 in 2003): Saint Louis suffered three losses to East Carolina, narrowly missing the C-USA Tournament. NICOLE BOHNENSTIEHL set the career RBI record at SLU with 69, breaking the previous record of 65. She also broke her own single-season strikeouts record with 262. She led Saint Louis in batting average (298), RBI (21) and home runs (5). In the pitching circle, she finished with a team-high 18 victories in 203 innings pitched.

SOUTH FLORIDA (51-15, 17-5 in 2003): No. 19 South Florida went 2-1 against Houston last weekend. With Saturday's 2-0 shutout in game one, the Bulls claimed their first 50-plus win season in C-USA history. The last time South Florida claimed 50 victories was in 1998, when the Bulls finished 57-14 and finished No. 8 in the nation. CARMELA LIWAG batted .500 (5-for10) with one double, one triple and one home run. LEIGH ANN ELLIS captured two wins to improve her conference-leading record to 31-7. In 15.2 innings pitched, she struck out 13, while giving up only three earned runs and no walks. South Florida leads C-USA in runs scored (315), runs batted in (278), hits (518), total bases (721), doubles (702) and triples (13). The Bulls earned the No. 2 seed in this week's C-USA Tournament and will face the winner of the Houston/UAB game.

SOUTHERN MISS (27-28, 12-12 in 2003): Southern Miss clinched its fourth-straight C-USA tournament appearance with two wins over UAB last weekend. The Golden Eagles have collected shutout victories in five of their last eight games. JESSICA HOLAWAY has not surrendered a run in her last 20 innings pitched, and in that span, she has given up only seven hits. Her two-hit shutout victory over UAB last Saturday was her third shutout against a league foe and her eighth of the season. HEATHER BELL continues to lead Southern Miss in hitting. The junior is batting .283 on the year and 10-for-24 (.416) in the last nine games. Before the month of April, Bell was batting .243. Southern Miss is 8-3 in the C-USA tournament. At Cougar Field, the Golden Eagles are 3-0.

UAB (28-25, 10-14 in 2003): The Blazers went 1-2 against Southern Miss last weekend, but was able to clinch the last berth to the C-USA Tournament with Sunday's 1-0 win over the Golden Eagles. BETH MULLINS went 3-for-8 against Southern Miss and hit the game-winning home run on Sunday. In the series, she hit .375 (3-for-8) and had a .750 slugging percentage. In 53 games this season, Mullins has compiled 53 hits and a .245 batting average. She currently leads the team with five home runs and is second with 24 RBI. The Blazers will face Houston on Thursday in the opening round of the C-USA Tournament.