BETHLEHEM, Pa. - As the NCC softball team prepares for this weekend's Region XIX tournament in Toms River, NJ, the overriding theme has been their mission to advance to Minnesota, where the 2010 NJCAA National Championship will be held.

"I would guess that "Mission Minnesota" is a theme for many teams," commented Head Coach Sam Carrodo, "obviously every Division III softball team in the NJCAA would love to advance the World Series, but the reality is that only eight teams make it, and only one of those is from Region XIX.  Obviously we have our work cut out for us, with Camden, Brookdale and Gloucester .... whoever wins our Region, will have earned the right to advance."

The Spartans will open play on Saturday morning at 10:00am when they face #2 seed Brookdale Community College.  The Jersey Blues are 38-10 on the season, including a 2-1 record against NCC.  Brookdale defeated the Spartans 5-0 on March 18th in Myrtle Beach and then the two teams split their Region XIX doubleheader at NCC on April 3rd, with Brookdale taking game on 3-2 and NCC taking the nightcap, 4-3.

All-Region selection Kerilyn Svenson leads the Brookdale pitching staff with a 25-5 record, 1.08 ERA and 212 strikeouts.  Samantha Deixler is batting .406 with 44 RBI and Tracey Stern is hitting .388 with 12 homeruns, 16 doubles and 48 RBI.

For the Spartans, Casey Ord is batting .425 and has stolen 36 bases, while Gina Falco leads the team in RBI with 20 and is batting .337.

Coach Carrodo has gone to four different pitchers this season, and each has excelled.  Heather Compton, who clinched the Sussex series last weekend, is 5-2 with a 0.58 ERA, Lindsay Frontino is 8-2 with a 1.14 ERA, Erin LaBar is 6-1 with a 0.87 ERA and Krysten Rockovits is 8-3 with an ERA of .995.  

The Spartans, 27-8 overall, will play at 2:00pm on Saturday at Ocean County College if they lose to Brookdale in their first game or they will play at 4:00pm if they defeat the Jersey Blues at 10:00am.

#1 seeded Gloucester will face 4th seeded Camden at 12:00pm in game two.