The San Diego State women's softball team is headed to the NCAA tournament for the fourth consecutive year after winning the Mountain West Tournament Championship over Fresno State.
"It was just a great team win. We were together. We were a tribe. We were just together which was huge for us," said sophomore CeCe Cellura.
Cellura was the star on the mound, earning tournament MVP honors by helping the Aztecs navigate their way through the loser's bracket.
Coach Stacey Nuveman Deniz believes this challenging path will benefit the team in the tournament.
"Now that we've gone through that and shown we can find that fight and find that grit, I think that's just a bonus for us," Nuveman Deniz said.
Two years ago, SDSU came within one win of reaching the College World Series in Oklahoma for the first time. Bella Espinoza, now a senior, is looking to extend her college career with another deep tournament run.
"That was probably the best experience I've ever had in softball, so I just want to get back to where we were back then. But, truly, it's a new group of girls so just focusing on one game at a time and playing together," Espinoza said.
The team's success comes with one small sacrifice – the seniors will miss this weekend's graduation ceremonies to compete in the regional tournament at UCLA.
"Much rather be fighting for a Super Regional berth than walking in graduation. Now, their parents may disagree...their grandparents may disagree, but for the players themselves -- they're competitors and they want to win," Nuveman Deniz said.
Meanwhile, the Cal State San Marcos women's softball team is also pursuing championship dreams. The Cougars are hosting the NCAA Western Super Regional starting Thursday.
The senior-led team upset San Francisco State last week and is now just two wins away from reaching their second Division II World Series in the past three years. They'll face Western Washington in a best-of-three series that concludes Friday on the team's North County campus.
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