Rock Valley College lands #4 seed for the NJCAA DII Softball World Series

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO/WQRF) — The Rock Valley College softball team is about to take a long road trip south, and that’s a very good thing. At the end of the week, the Golden Eagles be heading to Spartanburg, South Carolina to compete in the NJCAA Division II World Series.

The Golden Eagles will be one of 20 teams in the World Series. Tuesday, while watching a bracket reveal on the internet, they learned what their seed is. It/s the number four overall seed, the highest seed ever for RVC since jumping up to the Division II level.

“We were definitely hoping top four,” said RVC catcher Sidney Spindel. “We’ve been told from the get-go that the top four get good brackets, so knowing that we’re top four and seeing the work that this team has put in is worth it.”

“It definitely feels great to have that respect,” said RVC utility player and Belvidere North graduate McKenzie Culvey. “It just makes you want to work all that harder.”

Head coach Darin Monroe keeps the seed in perspective. “At the end of the day whether you’re seed number one or seed number 20, you’re in the dance and you’ve got an opportunity to go win it.”

Rock Valley has the resume deserving of a top four seed. The Golden Eagle’s record is 57-3. They won their last 32 games in a row. Another road trip to the deep south early in the season revealed a lot about this team.

“There’s no question in my mind that our spring break trip that we took where we’re playing nothing but division one junior colleges in the panhandle and in Georgia definitely benefited our resume,” said Monroe. “We won multiple nationally ranked games including defeating the defending Divion I national champion Northwest Florida State.”

RVC has had a lot of great softball teams. RVC won eight national championships at the Division III level before bumping up to D2 in the 2022-23 school year. This will be it’s third appearance in the D2 World Series. What makes this team a threat to win it all this year is the fact that this team is so well-rounded.

“If you’re scouting Rock Valley, you’ve got to scout us in a lot of different areas,” said Monroe. “We are not driven by one player in a lineup. We are not driven by one pitcher in a pitching rotation. We are a team that is built to be multifaceted and those are the type of teams are usually hard to beat.”

The College World Series will begin play on Tuesday, May 19. Rock Valley will open against the winner of a matchup between #13 seed Northwest Mississippi and #20 seed Cecil.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.