GAINESVILLE, Fla. (May 19, 2006) ? The University of South Florida softball team opened up the NCAA Regional in Gainesville, Fla., with a 2-1 win over the No. 22 North Carolina Tar Heels at the UF Softball Field on Friday afternoon.

With the victory, the No. 25 Bulls (48-23) advance to play FAU, which defeated Florida 2-0 Friday afternoon, on Saturday at noon.

In the top of the first inning, the Bulls opened up the scoring, taking advantage of mistakes by Tar Heels' pitcher Crystal Cox. A hit by pitch and two walks loaded up the bases for USF. With one out on the board, Krista Holle came up to bat and hit the ball to shallow right field. The ball landed just fair on the line, allowing one run to score off of the single. With the bases still occupied, Jessica Landau got hit by a Cox pitch, which allowed the final run of the inning to score.

With one swing of the bat, North Carolina (48-18) cut the Bulls' lead down to one run, as Casey Testa hit a solo home run to centerfield in the third inning off of USF starter Bree Spence.

After Spence gave up the run and then allowed a walk, she was relieved in favor of Cristi Ecks. The freshman came into the game out of the bullpen and shut down North Carolina, not allowing a hit in her five innings of work. Ecks (22-11) picked up the win in a four-strikeout and one-walk outing.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, USF got two easy outs thanks to a ground out and a fly out. With only one out to work with, North Carolina's Emily Troup hit a grounder to the second baseman, who fielded it and threw the ball over the first baseman Ashley Bullion's head. Bullion went after the ball and threw it to catcher Laura Wolf, who was covering first base to pick off the runner and end the Tar Heels' comeback chance.

“I thought our patience in the beginning of the game was real evident in creating some runs, and we just need to do that more often,” coach Ken Eriksen said. “I though we got away from that later on, but you have to give all the credit in the world to the hustle, especially when Cristi Ecks came in the game and shut North Carolina down in a momentum-swing type deal. Laura Wolf made the play of the game at the end and she deserves all the accolades in the world.”