On Sunday evening, Florida Atlantic awaited their fate on if their 44-10 record would be enough to punch their ticket to the NCAA tournament as an at-large selection. Shortly after 7 PM EST, that anticipation turned into elation, as the Owls were announced as a 2 seed in the Gainesville regional, set to take on Georgia Tech on May 16th.
2025 now becomes the second consecutive season that Jordan Clark’s squad was the only mid-major to receive an at-large to the tournament and 13th regional bid overall for the Florida Atlantic program. The 2 seed that the Owls received was a recognition from the committee on their improvement from a year ago, as in 2024 they headed to Gainsville as a 3 seed.
Although the success that FAU had this season has become the standard according to Owls head Coach Jordan Clark, that doesn’t take away from the accomplishment of being a mid-major that receives an at-large bid.
“To be in the tournament as a mid-major as an at-large bid, it’s just priceless. Like, it never gets old as a coach. Sometimes when you’re an athlete, you take it for granted, like, Oh, I’m in regional again. But like, as a coach, you know how hard it is to do, we kind of had an idea that if we were selected, Gainesville or Tallahassee are going to be our spots. And so we’ve come to peace with that, and just knowing that, like that’s just how this is going to be. I’m excited. I’m excited to play Georgia Tech, who we haven’t played, to have Mercer in the tournament. They were actually supposed to come down here this year, and the schedules got mixed up. So it’s just funny how it all kind of works. And so I really like our draw. It’s not going to be easy by any means, but it’s fun to see different teams in the regional than we did last year,” Clark said.
The Owls enter this regional following a heartbreaking 1-0 loss at the hands of North Texas in the AAC tournament, which gives them a bit of a chip on their shoulder heading into Gainesville. There was a lot of good that came out of the Owls 1-0 loss, including a dominating pitching performance from Autumn Courtney, which earned her 1st team tournament honors, however a loss wasn’t what the Owls went to Tampa for and the upcoming regional will be a chance for redemption, especially in the hitting department.
Adversity has been something this FAU squad has been able to respond to with great success over the past 2 years, however in the postseason last year that trait has escaped them, but this year Clark is hoping for different results.
“We look at it and go ‘we did not play our best softball’. And so since you didn’t play your best softball, you walk away from that game going, okay, that sucks, but how are we going to turn the page and make it better when we go back out? And I just told them, I was like, I don’t want to be the team that loses in the conference tournament first game and two and DQ in the regional, that’s what we did last year, and we are not going to do what we did last year. So now that we’ve lost this game, we’ve got to figure out now how to change kind of our fate in the way that this ends,” Clark said.
Although the Owls were pretty much locked into the Gainesville regional due to an NCAA rule that keeps teams at a regional within 400 miles, an advantage to that is they will get to take a bus to Gainesville and will get to practice on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. These next few days will be key, as FAU will be facing off against 3 teams that will be new to them and the extra preparation will help alleviate the problems that could come from that.
The next few days will be hectic for Coach Clark and her staff, however no matter what the situation is her squad’s practice approach will not change.
“We’re gonna hit a lot. We are gonna practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And, you know, we’re just gonna go back to what we always do, the first practice of the week, fine tune, some mechanical stuff, kind of talk about some breakdown and what worked, what didn’t work. And so we’re gonna do that. And then, you know, most likely we will travel on Wednesday. Practice in Gainesville on Thursday, and play on Friday. So now it’s like the mad dash to get everything scheduled, hotels, travel, all of those things,” Clark said.
The Owls first matchup will be Georgia Tech, a squad who also received an at-large bid after a 27-22 season and 10-11 record in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Georgia Tech is highlighted by 6 players batting over .300 and their ace Sophia Voyles, who finished 12-8 with a 2.70 ERA and 134 strikeouts to just 52 walks.
Coach Clark and her staff will be dialed in on how to manage their pitching staff and generate a bounce back in the hitting department during preparation over the next few days, however an equally as important focus will be on Georgia Tech and figuring out what areas of the Yellow Jackets game will be exploitable.
“I thought autumn pitched phenomenal. And we know that Jaden’s last outing was phenomenal. Ainsley is Ainsley, and you’ve got Gabby still in the tank that hasn’t thrown in a little bit, so she’s really fresh. We’ve gotta make sure that we do a good job of getting people on base. We’ve got to hit the ball. And we just know that for us, like we’re going to focus a ton on their pitching, watch a lot of film, figure out what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses, and how, as hitters, we can we attack those things,” Clark said.
FAU will take on Georgia Tech from Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium in Gainesville, Florida on Friday at 2 PM EST, with the game streaming on ESPNU.