SWAC Championship Central
 
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – For the first since 2015 the Jackson State qualified for the SWAC softball tournament.
 
JSU reached as the No. 4 seed in the SWAC East Division and match-up with No. 1 seed Texas Southern, the top seed from the SWAC West Division. The two teams did not meet in the regular season.
 
"We are excited to be in the conference tournament and can't wait to show what we can do," said JSU head coach Kevin Montgomery, who is in his first season leading the program. "It's a new season and everyone starts over."
 
In the circle, JSU is led by sophomore Kayla Owens. The Moreno Valley, California native went 7-3 with a 1.39 earned run average in conference play. She has pitched a total of 66 innings and struck out 47 batters. Owens is also a quality batter and sports a .333 batting percentage and an OPS of 1.036.
 
The Lady Tigers will bring in a balanced lineup. In conference play Sierra Smith is batting .364 and Yasmin Melero is hitting .343 and slugging .600, while Kaitlyn Elzie is hitting .342 and is a perfect 6-for-6 in stolen base attempts.
 
Kelsey Smith leads the Blue and White with 11 runs batted in and is batting .255.