July 22, 2010

EVANSTON, Ill. -- The 2010 World Cup of Softball begins tonight, July 22, at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla., with plenty of Northwestern Wildcat representation on Team USA.

Former Wildcats Eileen Canney (2007 graduate) and Tammy Williams (2009 graduate) are playing for the national team, while 2009-10 volunteer assistant coach Lauren Lappin also is on the squad. NU mentor Kate Drohan is serving as head coach of the USA Futures Team, which joins Canada and Japan in rounding out the four-team field at the World Cup.

"It has been crazy to be here in Oklahoma City and have all of the emotions of the 2006 and 2007 World Series come flooding back," Canney said. The ace of those Wildcat squads, Canney helped pitch NU to a second-place finish in the nation in 2006 and a third-place finish in 2007. She is scheduled to throw again on the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium Field in Saturday's World Cup game against the USA Futures team before also throwing in one of Sunday's contests.

The games of the World Cup of softball will be televised on the ESPN family of networks. The schedule for Team USA is as follows: July 23 at 7 p.m. - USA vs. Japan - ESPN and ESPN3.com
July 24 at 1 p.m. - USA vs. USA Futures - ESPN (tape delay from 11 a.m.) and ESPN3.com
July 24 at 3 p.m. - USA vs. Canada (men's slow pitch Border Battle) - ESPN and ESPN3.com
July 24 at 7 p.m. - USA vs. Japan - ESPN2 and ESPN3.com
July 25 at 4 p.m. - USA vs. Canada - ESPN2 and ESPN3.com
July 26 at 8 p.m. - No. 1 vs. No. 2 - ESPN2 and ESPN3.com

Williams, Canney and Lappin already have one international championship this year. The trio helped Team USA to a 7-0 record and the title at the XII ISF Women's Softball World Championships in Caracas, Venezuela, in late June and early July.