Boston College Softball Continues Solid Season With Sweep of NC State

Much like their Birdball counterparts, the Boston College softball program spent several years adrift and noncompetitive in the ACC. They went 16-33 in 2010 and 15-31 in 2011 before Ashley Obrest was installed as head coach prior to the 2012 season. Things bottomed out in 2013 at 14-38..

But in the last few seasons, fifth-year head coach Obrest has impressively rebuilt the squad. After surviving those bottoming-out years, Obrest has brought the program to competitiveness, qualifying for the ACC Tournament in each of the past two seasons, including hitting the 30-win mark in 2014.

This past weekend, Boston College swept NC State for three crucial ACC wins to improve their record to 24-20, with a 7-8 mark in the ACC. In an ACC that's showing extreme parity this season, the wins boosted the Eagles up to 5th place out of 11 in the conference standings.

Jessica Dreswick made headlines by tossing the first no-hitter in BC history on Saturday to highlight a doubleheader sweep of NC State. She started again on Sunday but struggled early, giving up two runs in the first. Allyson Frei came to the rescue, tossing 6.2 innings of shutout relief out of the bullpen while the BC bats came to life to power the Eagles to a 5-2 win.

8 of 11 ACC teams make the conference tournament, which begins on May 12 in Raleigh. Despite being in 5th, the massive wad in the middle of the standings means BC is just 1.5 games ahead of 9th-place UVA, so the final two ACC series - against Syracuse and Pitt - are crucial over these next two weekends. BC also has a chance to move up, as 4th-place Virginia Tech is just a half game ahead of the Eagles. The top 3 - Florida State, Louisville and Notre Dame - have a comfortable margin over the rest of the field.

Prior to returning to ACC play, BC has two mid-week games this week on the road at local rivals: Providence on Wednesday and UMass-Lowell on Thursday.