The 1996

NCAA Division I softball tournament The NCAA Division I softball tournament is held annually in May/June and features 64 college softball teams in the United States, culminating in the Women's College World Series (WCWS), which is played in Oklahoma City. Tournament play and team ...

was the fifteenth annual tournament to determine the national champion of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

women's collegiate softball. Held during May 1996, thirty-two Division I college softball teams contested the championship. The tournament featured eight regionals of four teams, each in a

double elimination A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimin ...

format. The 1996 Women's College World Series was held in

Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee ...

from May 23 through May 27 and marked the conclusion of the

1996 NCAA Division I softball season The 1996 NCAA Division I softball season, play of college softball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level, began in February 1996. The season progressed through the regular ...

. This marked the last time that the Women's College World Series was held in a city other than

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

, and previewed

Golden Park Synovus Park, formerly known as Golden Park, is a baseball stadium in Columbus, Georgia that originally opened in 1926 and is currently the home field of the Columbus Clingstones of the Southern League, the Atlanta Braves' AA affiliate. While ...

's hosting of softball events for the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

won their fourth NCAA championship by defeating

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

6–4 in the final game. Arizona second baseman

Jenny Dalton Jenny Dalton-Hill (born March 5, 1974) is an American former collegiate All-American softball player and current sports commentator and general manager for the Bandits for the inaugural 2025 season of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUS ...

was named

Women's College World Series Most Outstanding Player The Women's College World Series Most Outstanding Player is an award for the best individual performance during the Women's College World Series, the college softball national championship event in the United States. The recipient of the award is a ...

Qualifying

Regionals

Regional No. 1

Arizona qualifies for WCWS.

Regional No. 2

Michigan qualifies for WCWS.

Regional No. 3

Iowa qualifies for WCWS.

Regional No. 4

Southwestern Louisiana qualifies for WCWS.

Regional No. 5

California qualifies for WCWS.

Regional No. 6

Princeton qualifies for WCWS.

Regional No. 7

UCLA qualifies for WCWS.

Regional No. 8

Washington qualifies for WCWS.

Women's College World Series

Participants

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Bracket

Championship Game

All-Tournament Team

The following players were named to the All-Tournament Team

References

{{1995–96 NCAA Division I championships navbox 1996 NCAA Division I softball season

NCAA Division I softball tournament Women's sports in Georgia (U.S. state)