50 moments since Title IX: Iowa softball’s first WCWS appearance

Second No. 17: After ‘nobody anticipated us to win a sport’ within the NCAA match, Iowa goes to its first Ladies’s Faculty World Sequence

Iowa Title IX sequence. The Gazette is counting down the highest 50 moments in Iowa Hawkeyes ladies’s athletics historical past within the 50 days main as much as the fiftieth anniversary of Title IX in June.

Editor’s observe: That is thirty fourth in a sequence counting down the High 50 moments in Iowa Hawkeyes ladies’s athletics historical past within the 50 days main as much as the fiftieth anniversary of Title IX in June.

Iowa softball didn’t have excessive outdoors expectations for the postseason in 1995 when it drew a regional with a “powerhouse” in Fresno State, an skilled California-Berkeley workforce and host Sacramento State.

“Nobody anticipated us to even win a sport,” former Iowa softball coach Gayle Blevins mentioned. “I don’t suppose any workforce from the Midwest had ever gained a sport at that cut-off date, at a west-coast regional.”

However Iowa beat the chances, not solely successful a singular sport, however successful the regional and going to the Ladies’s Faculty World Sequence for the primary time in program historical past.

“I’m positive if anyone would have wager on that, they might have misplaced the home,” Blevins mentioned.

The Hawkeyes completed the feat whereas surrendering simply two runs whole within the 4 regional video games. Three of the 4 video games have been determined by one run, together with Iowa’s 2-1 extra-inning victory to win the regional.

“They have been extraordinarily tight video games,” Blevins mentioned. “Once you play in a sport like that and also you’ve by no means been right here earlier than, it is a new, unchartered territory for Iowa.”

After dropping to UCLA within the WCWS, Iowa labored its approach again within the comfort bracket and was three wins away from an NCAA title. UCLA defeated the Hawkeyes once more en path to the Bruins’ eventual championship that was later vacated.

The 1995 season began a seven-year stretch with 4 Iowa journeys to the WCWS.

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