BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University softball team is coming off a 12-2 month of March and looks to continue its success with five games at the 19th annual Tournament of Champions in Turlock, California.
 
The Vikings have surged to the top of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings at 6-2 in league play and improved to 17-13 overall with a current six-game winning streak. WWU closes out it non-conference schedule with games at the TOC against Cal Poly Humboldt, Biola, Sonoma State, Holy Names and Academy of Art.
 
This marks the Vikings first trip back to Turlock for the Tournament of Champions since 2019, with the 2020 and 2021 tournaments canceled due to the pandemic. WWU carries a six-game TOC winning streak into Friday's opener vs. Humboldt, which includes one win in 2018 and a perfect 5-0 record in 2019.
 
WWU's recent success included a 6-0 record in road games last week, beginning with a doubleheader sweep over Northwest and then a 4-0 GNAC series at Montana State Billings. Led by the GNAC Player of the Week performances by pitcher Sydney Brown and second baseman Chantelle Shimabukuro, the Vikings were selected as the GNAC Team of the Week.
 
Western completed the opening month of the season with a 5-11 record, but has caught fire with the 12-2 record in March to sit at four games above the .500 mark at 17-13 overall. The Vikings are tied for first place in the GNAC with Saint Martin's and will resume league play next week with a four-game series at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC. WWU's next home games at Viking Field will be a four-game series vs. rival Central Washington University April 15-16.
 
The Vikings continue to be lead at the plate by senior All-American shortstop (and recent graduate) Tatum Dow, who is 5th in the GNAC batting .396 (40-for-101) with 23 runs scored, 10 doubles, two home runs and 16 RBI while starting all 30 games. Dow has recorded at least one hit in 28 of 30 games this season, including a 20-game hitting streak (6-game current streak). She recently passed 250 career at-bats, which means her .388 career batting average (100-for-258) is currently the best in WWU softball history.
 
Senior first baseman Dakota Brooks is batting .349 (30-for-86) with a team-best .640 slugging percentage (4th in the GNAC) and is 4th in the conference with 28 RBI and tied for 5th with five home runs. Shimabukuro has caught fire batting .500 (23-for-46) over her last 17 games (since Feb. 25) after opening the season with a .138 average (4-for-29).
 
Brown has emerged as the ace of the pitching staff going 5-1 with a 1.45 ERA (9 ER, 43.1 IP) in her last eight games (7 starts) and is 5-2 overall with a 2.30 ERA (16 ER, 48.2 IP) in 11 G/8 GS. Brown went 3-0 with a 0.70 ERA (2 ER, 20.0 IP) last week to earn GNAC Pitcher of the Week honors. Senior Kira Doan (6-4, 3.56 ERA, 20 G/10 GS) and freshman Joie Baker (6-6, 4.62 ERA, 17 G/11 GS) round out the rotation that ranks third in the GNAC with a 3.90 ERA.
 
WWU continues to lead the conference with a team fielding percentage of .966 and has made only nine errors over the last 14 games for a .977 mark in the month of March.
  Here is a look at the Vikings schedule at the Tournament of Champions. Please check wwuvikings.com/Live for the up-to-date schedule and live links on how to follow WWU Softball online (if live stats are available):
 
Friday, April 1:
WWU vs. Cal Poly Humboldt, 2 pm (Pedretti Park #1)
WWU vs. Biola, 7 pm (Pedretti Park #5)
 
Saturday, April 2:
WWU vs. Sonoma State, 2 pm (Pedretti Park #1)
WWU vs. Holy Names, 7 pm (Pedretti Park #2)
 
Sunday, April 3:
WWU vs. Academy of Art, 11:30 am (Warrior Field)
  WWU went 5-0 during the last Tournament of Champions March 29-31, 2019. The Vikings opened the three-day tournament with a pair of one-run victories over Cal State San Bernardino (2-1, 8 inn.) and Azusa Pacific (6-5) on Friday, then out-scored Dominican (13-1) and Cal State Monterey Bay (7-0) 20-1 in a pair of games Saturday and completed the perfect weekend with a 3-1 victory over Cal State East Bay. WWU was one of three teams in the 27-team tournament to finish 5-0, joining nationally-ranked UC San Diego and Sonoma State. Sonoma State was crowned the tournament champion via run differential, out-scoring its opponents by 25 runs (8 runs max per game) with WWU coming in 2nd with a +19 run differential.
  In WWU's last trip to the Tournament of Champions in 2019, WWU went a perfect 5-0 to become the first team from the GNAC to post an undefeated record in the 18-year history of the tournament. Western has played in all 18 years of the tournament that dates back to 2002 and owns an all-time 60-52 record in the TOC, having posted a .500 or better record in 11 of the 18 tournaments.
  Senior Dakota Brooks hit a grand slam in the opening game of the doubleheader at Puget Sound on February 19, her 11th career home run to tie for 11th in all-time program history. The grand slam was 30th in program history and the first since Paityn Cyr cleared the bases on April 6, 2019 at Saint Martin's. Brooks is batting .349 (30-for-86) with team-best power numbers in RBI (28), home runs (5) and slugging percentage (.640). Her 14 career home runs are 8th-most in WWU history.
 

WWU CAREER HOME RUNS
1.	45	Benson, Emily	2015-17,19
2.	22	Flem, Meghan	2007-10
3.	21	Levin, Alexie	2013-16
4.	19	Walley, Jordan	2013-16
5.	18	Sellevold, Makinlee	2015-17,19
6.	17	Cyr, Paityn	2017-20
7.	16	Bickar, Krista	2009-12
8.	14	Brooks, Dakota	2020-22
9.	13	Blauser, Emma	2013-16
10.	12	Rothenberger, Jackie	2010-13
	12	Herd, Carlena	1999-02

  Sophomore Macy Tarbox hit a pair of home runs in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader at NNU, the first two homers of her WWU career. Marked the first multi-homer game for a Viking since the 2019 season. Tarbox is tied for 7th in the GNAC with four home runs.
  Freshman Joie Baker tied the WWU single-game record with 16 strikeouts in game one of the February 19 doubleheader at Puget Sound. Baker's 16 strikeouts included eight looking and a string of seven consecutive strikeouts (1st thru 3rd innings) to tie for the second-longest consecutive K streak in WWU history. Her 16 strikeouts match the single-game WWU record by Erika Quint on March 13, 2011 vs. Western Oregon (game played in Anacortes, WA). In 17 appearances (11 starts) this season, Baker is 6-6 with a 4.62 ERA (42 ER, 63.2 IP) and is averaging a team-best 5.83 strikeouts per 7.0 innings pitched.
  Up-to-date season information, including season statistics, bios, roster, schedule and historical information can be viewed online at WWUVikings.com/Softball. WWU Softball also has a strong social media presence on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, so give them a follow!
  The WWU softball program enters its 30th season in 2022. WWU advanced to the NCAA Division II Championships for the fifth time in program history in 2021 after winning the GNAC Tournament. WWU has posted a winning record 18 times during the 30-year history of the program, which won the 1998 NAIA National Championship in only its sixth season to record the school's first ever team national title. During the eight-season span from 2014-2021, the Vikings combined to go 195-148 and won a pair of GNAC Tournament titles (2017 & 2019).