Lord Botetourt High School graduate Kristen Toppel will be participating in the Southeast Regional of the NCAA Division II softball tournament. Toppel is a senior shortstop for Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tennessee.

The Eagles had locked in an automatic bid by winning the South Atlantic Conference tournament championship April 28. The only drama for the Eagles Monday morning during the NCAA’s selection show was what seed Carson-Newman would be and to what sub-regional would the Eagles head.

Carson-Newman heads into the tournament as the six seed. The Eagles will face off with Georgia College in Hickory, N.C. at Lenoir-Rhyne’s Bears Field Thursday at 2 p.m., the NCAA announceed Monday morning.

Carson-Newman’s senior class of Toppel and Katie Pritchett (Ringgold, Ga.) makes an NCAA tournament for a third time. This is the first senior class to make back-to-back NCAA tournaments and three out of four in their careers since 2011.

Toppel has started all 49 games for the Eagles, who are 30-19.