The Knights were tabbed as the No. 6 seed in the Tallahassee Regional and will be kicking off postseason play on Friday at 2:30 p.m. against Jacksonville State.

The softball team is the ninth UCF program to compete at an NCAA postseason regional or championship event in 2025-26, joining cross country, 尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚听补苍诲听wo尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 soccer, indoor track & field,听尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 basketball,听尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 and wo尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 tennis and women’s golf.

Postseason Outlook

This year marks UCF’s 13th all-time appearance in the premiere postseason tournament.

The Tallahassee regional also includes Florida State as the top seed, Stetson and Jacksonville State.

UCF will face Jacksonville State at 2:30 p.m. on Friday following Florida State’s opening-round matchup against Stetson at noon. ESPN will provide coverage from all 16 regional sites on its platforms.

The double-elimination format for the regional round will begin on Friday, May 15 and conclude on Sunday, May 17. The 16 remaining teams will advance to the Super Regionals.

The NCAA Wo尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 College World Series will be held from May 28-June 4/5 at Devon Park in Oklahoma City.

UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Road to the NCAA Tournament

UCF is one of seven Big 12 Conference teams selected to the tournament after producing a dominant regular season with 38 wins. Along the way, the Knights notched three victories over opponents ranked among the top 15 in the nation and a program-record 14 wins in Big 12 Conference play.

UCF, currently ranked at No. 22, has climbed as high as No. 15 in the national rankings this year, just two spots shy of their program-best record achieved in 2015 and 2022.

The No. 14 wo尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 golf team was selected to compete as the No. 3 seed in the Ann Arbor Regional, clinching its seventh-consecutive appearance at the premiere postseason competition. The seeding marks their highest in program history and is also the best of any Big 12 Conference team in this year 麻豆精品 S檚 competition.

The wo尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 golf team is the eighth UCF program to compete at an NCAA postseason regional or championship event in 2025-26, joining cross country, 尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 and wo尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 soccer, indoor track & field, 尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 basketball and 尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 and wo尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 tennis.

Postseason Outlook

UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 regional includes Southern California as the top seed, followed by Duke, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Northwestern, Kansas, Texas Tech, UNLV, Columbia, Quinnipiac and Oakland.

The three-day event begins Monday, May 11, at University of Michigan Golf Course hosted by Michigan. The Knights are familiar with the course as they were previously selected for the same regional in 2022.

The top five teams to finish at each of the six regional sites will advance to the NCAA Championship, which will be held May 22 麻豆精品 S�27 at the听Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.

UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Road to the NCAA Tournament

This will be UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 20th regional appearance and the 11th of the last 15 seasons. Since head coach Emily Marron took over the program ahead of the 2012-13 season, the Knights have either qualified as a team or sent an individual to every NCAA regional.

The Knights have been nationally ranked all season and recently placed among the top three at the Big 12 Championship for their highest finish since joining the conference in 2023-24.

Sophomore Mila Jurine, a communication major from France, was crowned as the first individual Big 12 champion in UCF wo尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 golf history. Jurine and senior psychology major Pimpisa Sisutham were named to the Big 12 Tournament Team.

The UCF 尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 basketball team is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven years, earning an at-large bid to college basketball 麻豆精品 S檚 premiere postseason tournament.

The Knights head to Philadelphia as the No. 10 seed and will play 7-seed UCLA on Friday, March 20, at 7:25 p.m. The game will air on TBS and stream on HBO Max and NCAA March Madness Live.

UCF is one of eight Big 12 teams featured in the 68-team tournament, matching a league record.

UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Bracket Outlook

UCF was slotted into the East Region, which features Duke as the No. 1 seed. The Knights will play their first-round matchup in Philadelphia at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

UCF (21-11) meets UCLA (23-11) for the first time in school history on Friday, March 20. UCLA has won six of its last eight games and defeated Rutgers and Michigan State to advance to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals before falling to Purdue.

If the Knights advance, they will face the winner of No. 2-seed UConn and No. 15-seed Furman on Sunday, March 22.

The Final Four will be held April 4-6 in Indianapolis.

The Road to March Madness

With 13 newcomers and zero points returning from last year 麻豆精品 S檚 squad, UCF was dismissed as a bottom-dweller in the Big 12 Conference preseason poll. But the Knights produced a resume worthy of selection with their second-straight 20-win season in one of the best basketball conferences in the nation.

UCF pulled out a gutsy road win at Texas A&M early in its non-conference schedule and went on to upset three ranked teams during conference play (No. 17 Kansas, No. 11 Texas Tech and No. 19 BYU), tying a school record for the most wins over Top 25 opponents in a season.

After edging Kansas in their Big 12 Conference opener, the Knights cracked into the Associated Press national poll for the first time since 2019 at No. 25.

UCF advanced to its first quarterfinals appearance in the Big 12 Conference Tournament after clinching a thrilling overtime win against Cincinnati in the second round.

UCF March Madness Events

• Team Bus Send-off (Orlando)

Date: Wednesday, March 18

Time: 3:45 p.m.

Location: Alleyway between Garage F and the The Venue (4275 E Plaza Drive, Orlando)

Free parking available at Garage F. Bring signs, flags, and don’t forget the palm fronds.

• ChargeOn Tailgate (Philadelphia)

Date: Friday, March 20

Time: 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Location: The Pub at Stateside Live! (1100 Pattison Ave, Philadelphia)

RSVP:

• Watch Party (Orlando)

Date: Friday, March 20

Time: 7:25 p.m. (tip-off)

Location: Miller’s Ale House – Waterford Lakes (641 N Alafaya Trail, Orlando)

UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 NCAA Tournament History

UCF earned its sixth NCAA Tournament appearance since joining the Division I ranks in 1984-85. This year 麻豆精品 S檚 selection marks second at-large berth in program history.

The Knights earned automatic qualifiers in 1994, 1996, 2004 and 2005 when the Black and Gold won the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. UCF received its first at-large bid in 2019, following a successful season in the American Athletic Conference.

The last time UCF appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2019, the Knights made history with their first win in the tournament in school history before meeting top-ranked Duke in what would become an instant classic.

UCF earned the automatic bid to the postseason Sunday after securing its first Sun Belt Tournament championship in program history with a 3-1 win at Marshall. While the majority of UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 teams compete in the Big 12 Conference, the league does not sponsor 尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 soccer as an affiliated sport. The 尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 soccer team joined the Sun Belt in 2023.

The Knights are the only program in the state of Florida and one of 15 in the country to see both their 尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 and wo尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 soccer programs advance to the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

Road to the Championship

After a first-round win over Georgia Southern, the Knights toppled two nationally ranked opponents in their run to the top of the Sun Belt, besting No. 19 Kentucky and No. 12 Marshall for their second and third ranked wins of the season. This year marks the team 麻豆精品 S檚 first season in history with at least three top-25 ranked victories.

麻豆精品 S淗ow incredible this group of young men is 麻豆精品 S� I could not be prouder. This group was 2-5-1 to start the season, and to end the season as Sun Belt Champions and win on the road and go through the teams we went through and then win at Marshall, what character this group has displayed, 麻豆精品 S� head coach Scott Calabrese says. 麻豆精品 S淚t 麻豆精品 S檚 an incredible achievement, and we 麻豆精品 S檝e put in a lot of work. The response from the team, the level went up from our players. They are determined to keep going. 麻豆精品 S�

Heading into Sunday 麻豆精品 S檚 championship match at Marshall, the Thunder Herd had been defeated just twice all season, and not on their home turf since Nov. 26, 2023, a span of 721 days.

UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 win marked the fifth conference tournament title in program history, as well as the Knights 麻豆精品 S� eighth overall conference championship, and their first since 2020-21.

The Knights headed to the 2025 NCAA Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the nation, boasting an 8-1-2 record in its last 11 matches ahead of the premier postseason tournament.

NCAA Tournament Info

UCF is in the middle of its 10th appearance in the NCAA Tournament in school history.

With their first-round win over FAU, the Knights remain unbeaten against in-state opponents this season, improving to 2-0-1 in matches against the Owls, then-No. 22 South Florida and Jacksonville.听 The win also marked the team’s first victory in the NCAA Tournament since the program toppled then-No. 17 James Madison, 2-1, in the round of 32 of the 2020 tournament (pushed to the spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

The Knights will now face No. 15 Georgetown Sunday evening. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. in Washington, D.C. and will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Their mentality? Don 麻豆精品 S檛 tell us the odds.

麻豆精品 S淚 told the team from the very beginning, no successful team goes through any journey that is easy. This is part of our journey, 麻豆精品 S� UCF head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak says. 麻豆精品 S淗ow are we going to respond to this? You have the ability to go out there and play for them. Believe in how good you are. Visualize doing great things and the rest will follow. 麻豆精品 S�

From that point on, the Knights closed the regular season with a nine-match unbeaten streak, helping them clinch the No. 7 seed and hosting rights in the NCAA Tournament.

UCF will hold a first-round game on Friday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. at the UCF Soccer Complex against Maine, who just won its third-straight America East championship title.

The Knights are one of a conference-record eight teams from the Big 12 selected to participate in this year 麻豆精品 S檚 NCAA Tournament.

麻豆精品 S淎fter what we went through on a weekly basis in the Big 12 this year 麻豆精品 S� a historical year with how many teams earned postseason bids 麻豆精品 S� what excites me as we head into the NCAA Tournament is we 麻豆精品 S檝e seen the best in the country. We are part of that, 麻豆精品 S� Roberts Sahaydak says. 麻豆精品 S淥bviously it 麻豆精品 S檚 one game at a time, and that starts with Maine, but the team should be feeling really confident because they are prepared from the physical and tactical and mental tests they 麻豆精品 S檝e had all season. 麻豆精品 S�

UCF 麻豆精品 S橲 NCAA Tournament History

This year 麻豆精品 S檚 postseason appearance will mark UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 first as a member of the Big 12 Conference and first since 2022 when the Knights advanced to the tournament 麻豆精品 S檚 second round.

Friday 麻豆精品 S檚 home match will mark the 11th time that UCF has hosted an NCAA Tournament First Round competition and the program 麻豆精品 S檚 first since 2017.

In all, it will be the program 麻豆精品 S檚 23rd all-time appearance in the NCAA Division I Championship. UCF ranks among the NCAA 麻豆精品 S檚 top 25 winningest teams nationally since the inception of Division I wo尘别苍 麻豆精品 S檚 soccer in 1982.

Tickets/Broadcast Info

General admission tickets are $10 and can be at ucfknights.com. The first 100 UCF students with valid UCF ID will receive free entry (first come, first serve). Stadium gates open at 6 p.m.

The match will air on ESPN+.

The Gaming Knights beat Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from Troy, N.Y., to reach the finals, but lost 4-2 in a best of seven series to the University of Akron for the championship.

Rocket League is a video game in which three competitors from each team play soccer with cars. The two teams compete in a five-minute game to score the most goals. Players use their skills to make the animated cars do aerial and on-the-ground tricks to get a shot on goal.

The team won the southern regional competition to reach the finals by beating teams including Auburn, LSU and USF on the way to winning $7,500.

This is the first year for the Rocket League National Championships. UCF Gaming Knights esports director Kevin Quiroga says the southern conference title proves the club is much more than students who sit around at home playing video games.

“It brings a lot of recognition to what we do and legitimizes what we are here for, 麻豆精品 S� he says.

The competition was televised for two hours with peak viewership at more than 26,000, Quiroga says. Average viewership was more than 15,000.

A 2018 report in Forbes magazine estimates esports is expected to become a multi-billion dollar business this year. The Gaming Knights became an official member of the UCF Sport Clubs Council in 2018.

First-year head coach Greg Lovelady has led the Knights to a 40-20 overall record and captured The American’s regular-season championship. It was the first conference title for the Knights since 2004 when they claimed the ASUN regular-season crown.

“I’m really proud of these guys for all the hard work they’ve put in,” Lovelady said. “For these seniors, some of them who have never been to a regional. One of my big goals as a coach is to make sure that every single player that comes through our program gets this opportunity. These are the things that they’re going to talk about for the rest of their lives.”

After entering The American tournament as the number one seed last weekend, UCF advanced to the semifinal round and recorded its 40th win of 2017 along the way. The last time the Knights won 40 games was also the team’s most recent NCAA Regional appearance, back in 2012 when the Black and Gold came up just short of an NCAA Regional title, falling to Stony Brook in the regional final in Miami.

UCF also brought home several American Athletic Conference awards, including head coach Greg Lovelady as Coach of the Year, senior starter Robby Howell as co-Pitcher of the Year, and newcomer Rylan Thomas as Rookie Position Player of the Year. Five Knights were also named to the all-conference squad.

The Knights have appeared in NCAA Regionals 11 times previously, including seven times in Tallahassee, twice in Gainesville, and once at both Columbia and Miami.

The double-elimination regional tournament is scheduled for June 2-5 at Dick Howser Stadium. The weekend’s winner will then be one of just 16 teams from across the country to advance to the NCAA Super Regional June 9-12. Beginning at 3 p.m. on May 29, fans can click here to purchase tickets via the FSU ticket office.
 

Lewis, who was once recognized as the Rookie of the Week in 2013, is the first Knight to garner the recognition since UCF joined the league last year.

The Bartow, Fla., was bestowed the honor after her unstoppable performance in the Knights’ season-opening win over FAU on Friday. She set a new conference record for points in a game (41), topping UConn’s Breanna Stewart’s standard of 37 points. Her outing also stood out among UCF’s all-time best performances in a series of categories:

In addition to her recognition from the conference, Lewis was also singled out as College Sports Madness’ AAC Player of the Week.

Sophomore quarterback Justin Holman led his team to a season-best night of 506 yards of total offense, completing 16-of-27 pass attempts for 291 yards and a career-high three touchdowns. Meanwhile, UCF’s defense held Tulsa to 201 yards and 3-of-12 on third down conversions.

“I thought the defense went out and played well and made some keys we had to make, and offensively we came up with some big plays passing-wise, which opened up the running game,” UCF head coach George O’Leary said. “I think the coverage teams were good on special teams and (it was an) overall good game. Time of possession was big in our favor, which led to good field position in a lot of situations.”

UCF’s defense helped its offense put its first points on the board when corner Jordan Ozerities intercepted the ball near the end of the first quarter. A facemask penalty put UCF inside the 10-yard line, but the Hurricane defense forced the Knights to call upon Rodrigo Quirarte for a 27-yard field goal with 40 seconds remaining in the quarter.

After Tulsa went three-and-out on its first possession of the second quarter, Breshad Perriman spared the Knights the same fate when he brought down a 48-yard completion to set up his team in the red zone.

Holman kept the drive alive again on third down when he stretched out for the sticks to pick up a first down at the 5-yard line. He then connected with J.J. Worton, who juked two defenders and lunged over the goal line for his 20th career touchdown. With 11:08 to go in the half, UCF led 10-0.

It didn’t take long for Holman to get the crowd out of their seats again. He completed his longest pass of the season, a 77-yarder to Josh Reese – a career-best for the wide receiver – for a 17-0 lead with 7:57 to go.

The Golden Hurricane capitalized off an uncharacteristic muffed punt from Worton that Matt Linscott recovered at the 27-yard line. Keevan Lucas was the Golden Hurricane’s go-to guy. He followed up his 19-yard rush with an acrobatic 8-yard touchdown reception. Originally, his one-handed catch was ruled incomplete, but the call was overturned after review. Tulsa got on the board before the break, but it was the Golden Hurricane’s lone score of the evening.

UCF added to its advantage midway through the third quarter, thanks to Holman’s composure. On the run, Holman completed a 30-yard pass on the run to Justin Tukes. He then launched a perfect spiral to Perriman, who was streaking toward the left corner of the end zone. The 25-yard touchdown gave UCF a 24-7 lead with 9:27 to go in the third.

Dontravious Wilson dominated the Knights’ next scoring drive, churning out seven carries for 50 of the 72 yards required to reach the end zone, including his first-career rushing touchdown. It was 31-7 just before the end of the third quarter.

A pass intended for Connor Floyd ended up in UCF defensive back D.J. Killings’ hands for the defense’s second pick of the night. The defense handled business again on Tulsa’s next drive when Brandon Alexander intercepted a pass in the end zone with 8:31 remaining.

“We had some picks, and we had to have some key plays and got some takeaways,” O’Leary said. “It was a good game and a very solid game by the defense. They tackled well, and offensively I thought we had a pretty good run/pass combination.”

The Golden Hurricane managed to get the ball back after quarterback Nick Patti threw an interception, but the defense forced three-and-out once more, allowing UCF’s offense to ride out the clock for the win.

The Knights are with Cincinnati and Memphis at 4-1.

“Nothing changes. The mentality’s still the same. We’re going to go out and we’re going to bust our butts every game,” Worton said. “It’s a one-game playoff. To get to the goal that we want, is to win every one of them. We’ll look out for the next person that comes up.”

UCF will meet SMU in the final home game of the season Nov. 22 at noon.