ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan softball team (41-16) will head to Stillwater, Okla., to kick off NCAA Tournament play this weekend (Fri-Sun., May 17-19) at the Oklahoma State's Cowgirl Stadium. The Wolverines will open play against Kentucky (30-22) at 2 p.m. CDT on Friday, live on ESPN2.

Notes

• Michigan is making its 30th NCAA Tournament appearance (1992-93, '95-2019, '21-22) and returns this season after missing the tournament last year for first time since 1994. It is just the ninth time in program history that U-M will play a regional round on the road. The Wolverines are 88-23 all-time in the NCAA Regional round and have won 18 regional titles.

• The winner of the Stillwater Regional will move on to a best-of-three super regional against the winner of the regional being hosted by Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark. That regional consists of No. 12 overall seed Arkansas, Arizona, Villanova and Southeast Missouri State.

• The Wolverines captured the Big Ten Tournament title last Saturday (May 11) with a 3-1 decision in the championship game against Indiana. It is Michigan's 11th Big Ten Tournament title in program history and first since 2019. U-M ranks first in Big Ten history in tournament titles (11), championship game appearances (17), overall wins (49) and win percentage (.721).

• Michigan held a 10-9 record on March 1, through its first three-plus weekends of the season, and have gone 31-7 since, including wins in 17 of its last 19 games. The Wolverines combined for a .218 batting average over the first 19 games with a .329 slugging percentage (11 home runs) and .283 on-base percentage. In the last 38 games, Michigan has batted .305 as a team with a .521 slugging percentage (48 home runs) and .404 on-base percentage.

• With 59 total homers on the season, Michigan already owns its most since belting 86 in 2016. Ten different Wolverine players have homered this season, most notably senior first baseman Keke Tholl, who leads the team with a career-best 15 long balls, including three at Michigan State (April 9) to tie U-M's single-game record.

• Junior right-handed pitcher Lauren Derkowski was named the Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player after she threw all 19 innings of tournament play, going 3-0 with a 1.84 earned-run average and 20 strikeouts. After a small dip midway through the Big Ten season, Derkowski has been particularly strong of late, going 6-1 over the last three weekends with a 1.60 ERA, two shutouts and 49 strikeouts over 48 innings.

• Sophomore third baseman Maddie Erickson owns a career high with a .357 batting average -- a 122-point improvement on her average last season -- and owns a .622 slugging percentage (16 doubles, 11 home runs) and a team-best 66 hits and 45 RBI.

• Junior outfielder Ellie Sieler ranks second on the team with a .345 batting average -- a 54-point improvement over her previous career high (.287). She already owns career highs in runs (46), hits (58) and RBI (19) predominantly from the leadoff spot. She is batting .433 (29-for-67) when leading off an inning with four doubles, two triples and four home runs.

• Freshman outfielder Ella Stephenson earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors in four of the last six weeks of the regular season and was the lone unanimous selection to the Big Ten All-Freshman team. Over those six weeks, a stretch of 22 games dating back to the Indiana series (March 29-31), Stephenson boasts a team-best .400 batting average (30-for-75) with 15 extra-base hits -- 10 doubles, three triples and two homers -- and 26 RBI. Stephenson opened her rookie campaign with a .167 average (9-for-54) over the first 22 games of the season.

• Derkowski, Erickson, Sieler and Tholl were all named to the All-Big Ten first team, while Stephenson was named to the second team. Only Derkowski was a repeat All-Big Ten selection, earning second-team honors in 2023. Michigan boasted both the most first-team selections and the most overall selections this year, while it was the program's most first-teamers since earning five in 2021.