How has FSU softball performed in the last five NCAA Tournaments?

Florida State softball enters the 2026 NCAA Tournament riding the momentum of an ACC regular-season and tournament double, armed with a 49-8 record and a No. 9 national seed, but also carrying the weight of five consecutive postseasons that ended just short of the ultimate goal.

The Seminoles will host the Tallahassee Regional for the 12th consecutive season, becoming one of just four programs nationally — along with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Oklahoma Sooners, and UCLA Bruins — to host a regional in each of the past 12 seasons. Florida State opens regional play Friday at noon on ESPNU against Stetson, with UCF and Jacksonville State also in the field.

The Seminoles enter with a program résumé that would make most coaches envious, but the last five postseasons paint a complicated portrait of a team that can reach the mountaintop, and just as quickly tumble down it. Here is how their last five postseason runs have gone.

2021 — Runner-Up

Florida State made its case as one of the premier programs in the country, reaching the Women’s College World Series finals before falling to Oklahoma. The Sooners needed all three games to dispatch the Seminoles in that championship series, winning Games Two and Three after FSU took Game One. It was a heartbreaking finish for a team that had played its way to the sport’s grandest stage.

2022 — Regional Shock

Coming off the runner-up finish, expectations were sky-high for an FSU squad that entered the tournament as the No. 2 national seed with a 54-7 record. What followed was one of the most stunning exits in program history. The Seminoles were eliminated in the regional round for the first time since 2012, dropping a pair of games to Mississippi State on the final day at JoAnne Graf Field — including a 4-3 loss in a winner-take-all contest that ended their season.

2023 — Runner-Up Again

FSU bounced back with another WCWS run that ended in familiar fashion. Oklahoma defeated the Seminoles again in the championship series, this time 5-3 and 3-1. Two national runner-up finishes in three seasons is a remarkable achievement — and a remarkable source of frustration.