BEAUMONT, Texas - After facing Sam Houston in their last regular season series in Beaumont, Lamar University's softball team will be traveling to SHSU's home field in Huntsville to partake in their first ever Western Athletic Conference tournament.
 
As the eighth seed in the tournament, the Cardinals (11-37, 5-19 WAC) will take on fifth-seeded Utah Valley (22-25, 12-12) in a single elimination contest this Wednesday at 10 am. Should the Cardinals win, they will advance to take on No. 4 seed Abilene Christian at 4:00 PM in a double-elimination portion of the tournament.
 
It's been three seasons since LU last made a conference tournament back in 2019 when they were members of the Southland Conference. They lost 4-0 to Northwestern State.
 
Senior pitcher Aaliyah Ruiz added six strikeouts this past weekend to her career total (against the Bearkats) and now has 257 for her. She still remains in third place all-time trailing second place Ciara Luna by 12 strikeouts and all-time leader Laura Napoli by 18.
 
Sam Bean finished the regular season as LU's leading hitter in the conference batting .319. Overall, Bean leads the Cards in hits (35), doubles (nine) and runs scored (24), which she is tied with teammate Audry Fleming. Nicolette Ramirez recorded LU's only homer in the last series to have three for the year.
 
UVU comes into Huntsville led by Madison Carr, who has a team-high 75 hits for a .446 batting average. Mikaela Thomson is a run-producing machine who has collected 49 RBIs, including 12 homers and 11 doubles on the season while batting .336. Brooke Carter (11-10, 5.11 ERA) and Katie Zuniga (10-10, 5.78 ERA) have combined for 21 of the team's 22 wins in the circle. Carter leads the Wolverines with 123 strikeouts on the season.

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