No. 3 Seed UCLA Opens Big Ten Tournament Thursday

Thursday, May 7

College Park, MD

4:00 PM (PT)

UCLA

Winner of (6) Northwestern vs. (11) Penn State

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Aleena Garcia

Photo by: Mac Brown

No. 3 Seed UCLA Opens Big Ten Tournament Thursday

May 06, 2026 | Softball

UCLA's Notes (PDF)Tournament Central Watch (BTN)

LOS ANGELES – The No. 3 seed UCLA softball plays in its second Big Ten Tournament this week at Maryland Softball Stadium in College Park, Md. The Bruins (45-7, 20-4) will face the winner of No. 6 seed Northwestern-No. 11 seed Penn State on Thursday, May 7 at 4 p.m. (PT). Every game of the Big Ten Tournament will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

UCLA concluded the conference regular-season schedule with a 20-4 record, featuring six sweeps of Big Ten opponents. The Bruins dropped two series at then-No. 9 Nebraska and last weekend versus No. 11 Oregon.

BIG TEN TOURNAMENT BRACKET & TOURNAMENT CENTRAL – LINK

GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Maryland Softball Stadium (College Park, Md.)
Schedule (all times Pacific)
Thursday, May 7 – UCLA vs. Northwestern or Penn State – 4 p.m. – Big Ten Network
Friday, May 8 – Semifinals – 4:30 p.m. – Big Ten Network
Saturday, May 9 – Championship – 1 p.m. – Big Ten Network

NCAA TOURNAMENT PLAY
UCLA will await its national seeding for the NCAA Tournament following the conclusion of the Big Ten Tournament in College Park, Maryland, on May 9.

The full 64-team bracket will be revealed live during the 2026 NCAA Division I Softball Selection Show on Sunday, May 10, at 4 p.m. PT on ESPN. The top 16 national seeds will host NCAA Regionals on campus from May 15–17. Ticket information will be announced on Monday, May 11, if UCLA earns a top-16 seed.

LAST YEAR AT THE BIG TEN TOURNAMENT
UCLA reached the Big Ten Tournament championship game in its first season in the conference in 2025, held at Bittinger Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind. After defeating Indiana and Nebraska in the first two rounds, the No. 2-seeded Bruins fell to No. 8-seeded Michigan, 2-0, in the title game. Including its time in the Pac-12, UCLA has reached the conference tournament title game in each of the past three seasons. UCLA has won one conference tournament title as a member of the Pac-12 in 2024.

NOTES ON THE BRUINS' LINEUP
• UCLA is tied for the national lead and has set both a program and Big Ten Conference record with 173 home runs.
• The Bruins' 173 home runs are tied with Oklahoma. That total is tied for the most in a season in NCAA history.
• For the first time in program history, eight different UCLA players have reached double-digit home runs in the same season.
• UCLA leads the NCAA in scoring (10.90), slugging (.834), on-base percentage (.497) and home run (173).
• UCLA's lineup boasts the NCAA leaders in RBIs (Woolery), on-base percentage, slugging and OPS (Grant) and runs scored (Slimp).
• Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery rank top-3 in the nation in home runs, slugging and on-base percentage.
• Grant and Woolery have been named USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 25 Finalists for a second straight season.
• Woolery is the fifth player in NCAA Division I history to record 100+ RBIs in a season with a program-record 106 so far this year.
• Woolery is on pace to become the first player in NCAA history with a .500+ average, 30+ homers and 100+ RBIs in the same year.
• Woolery has been named Big Ten Player of the Week four times this season (last on April 21).
• Grant is the NCAA leader in slugging percentage (1.326), on-base percentage (.646) and OPS (1.972).
• Rylee Slimp has broken Natasha Watley's UCLA single-season runs record of 75, set in 2001, with 85 runs so far this season.

OFFENSIVE RECORDS
• Megan Grant (35) and Jordan Woolery (33) are the first teammates in NCAA history to each hit 30+ homers in the same season.
• Grant has broken her Big Ten home run record of 26 set last season. She needed 29 fewer games this season to tie that mark.
• Grant has broken Stacey Nuveman's UCLA single-season home run record of 31, set in 1999, with 34 homers so far this season.
• Woolery has broken Stacey Nuveman's UCLA single-season RBI record of 91, set in 1999, with 106 RBIs so far this season.
• Woolery's 106 RBIs also stand as the new Big Ten single-season record, breaking Sierra Romero's previous mark of 83 in 2015.
• With 106 RBIs, Woolery is 22 RBIs shy of tying the NCAA single-season record of 128 set by Arizona's Laura Espinoza in 1995.
• Woolery has climbed into the top-10 of UCLA's career hits list, ranking seventh with 281 career knocks over 232 games played.
• Rylee Slimp has broken Natasha Watley's UCLA single-season runs record of 75, set in 2001, with 85 runs so far this season.

NOTES ON THE BRUINS' PITCHING STAFF
• Taylor Tinsley has pitched 168.2 of UCLA's 311.1 total innings this season (54.2%).
• Tinsley ranks second in the country with 26 victories and leads the Big Ten with 18 complete games.
• Tinsley ranks ninth in UCLA history with 126 career appearances in the circle.
• Tinsley appeared in all three games of four Big Ten series this season (Wisconsin, Nebraska, Washington and Oregon).
• Tinsley has thrown three career shutouts against top-25 opponents, including one this season versus No. 12 LSU on Feb. 15.
• Tinsley is UCLA's lone returning pitcher after leading last year's staff with a 2.44 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 6.63 K/BB ratio in 2025.

NOTES ON THE TEAM
• UCLA has recorded 26 run-rule wins this season after setting the program record with 28 run-rule wins in 2025.
• Kelly Inouye-Perez became the 55th head coach in NCAA Division I history to win 900 games at Rutgers on March 22.
• Inouye-Perez became UCLA softball's all-time winningest head coach earlier this season with her 888th career victory.
• UCLA plays its 52nd season of softball this spring, the 20th with Inouye-Perez at the helm.
• UCLA made an NCAA-record 33rd Women's College World Series appearance in 2025, and the 11th under Inouye-Perez.
• UCLA's roster consists of 10 returners and 11 newcomers, including six true freshmen and five incoming transfers.
• Entering 2026, Inouye-Perez ranks seventh all-time and second among active head coaches with a .796 winning percentage.

GRANT AND WOOLERY REPEAT AS TOP 25 FINALISTS
• Seniors Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery were named USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 25 Finalists April 29. This marks the second consecutive season that Grant and Woolery have both been named Top 25 Finalists. Woolery was later named a Top 10 Finalist for the 2025 season. The list of 25 finalists will be trimmed to 10 on May 13, with three finalists announced May 18. The winner will be revealed prior to the start of the Women's College World Series.
• Two Bruins have received the honor a total of three times. Rachel Garcia was a back-to-back winner of the award in 2018 and 2019 and Stacey Nuveman won the award in 2002. Redesigned in 2017, the Player of the Year trophy symbolizes one of the greatest to ever wear the USA Softball uniform – three-time Olympic Gold Medalist and UCLA associate head coach, Lisa Fernandez.

COACH I MILESTONES
• Kelly Inouye-Perez became UCLA softball's all-time winningest head coach after defeating No. 4 Florida on Feb. 27 at the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton for her 888th career victory. She passed her predecessor, former coach and NFCA Hall of Famer Sue Enquist who had an overall mark of 887-175-1 (.835). Sharron Backus, the inaugural coach in UCLA softball history, was the first to reach 800 wins as she retired with a record of 854-173-3 (.831). The three UCLA Athletic Hall-of-Fame head coaches are responsible for all of the Bruins' 2,256 wins and 13 national championships, which are both the most in NCAA history.
• Later, Inouye-Perez secured her 900th career victory in UCLA's 13-3 win at Rutgers on March 22. She became the 55th head coach in NCAA Division I Softball history to reach that milestone. UCLA has topped 50 wins in nine of Inouye-Perez's 20 seasons as head coach and reached the Women's College World Series 11 times.