The Central Dutch softball team is back in the NCAA DIII Super Regional for the first time since 2015.
The Dutch have made 32 NCAA Tournament appearances in program history, the most of any team in Division III. With their four National Championships, they have a storied history.
"Our players will say you're not just playing for yourself in this current team, you're playing for a group of alumni that have, you know, really made a path of what this program is all about," said head coach George Wares. "(That does) put a little pressure on each team but it's also a really good expectation that you play with hoping to have the success that the previous teams have had."
With that storied history, the current team has the goal of winning the school's first National Championship since 2003.
"We take a lot of pride in the tradition that the program holds and just the connections we have with the alumni, the past women that have played here, they just really have set the standard for the winning culture that we have. So we just want to continue to carry that on and just respect the game," fifth-year senior Megan Doty told Local 5.
Central plays No. 1 Linfield University in a best-of-three series on their home turf in Oregon starting on Thursday. The winner advances to the Division III Women's College World Series in Marshall, Tex.