Published on May 9, 2016 by Philip Poole  
Softball Win

The Samford softball Bulldogs won the 2016 Southern Conference regular season championship May 7 with a weekend sweep of UNCG. It was softball’s first conference championship in 25 years and its first since Samford joined the Southern Conference.

The top-seeded Bulldogs will open SoCon tournament play Thursday, May 12, with an 11:30 a.m. CDT contest against the winner of the Wednesday game between 4th seed UNCG and 5th seed East Tennessee State. The double-elimination tournament will be held in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Samford's Megan Dowdy and Mollie Hanson were named Southern Conference Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively, as voted by the league's head coaches and announced by the conference office. Samford's Mandy Burford was tabbed Coach of the Year.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.