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BLACKSBURG (hokiesports.com) - The Virginia Tech softball team earned an at-large berth in the 2013 NCAA Softball Championship, as announced Sunday night on ESPNU. The Hokies will face future ACC member Notre Dame in the first round of the Lexington (KY) Regional and will be joined by Marshall and 12th-seeded and host Kentucky in the regional to be held at John Cropp Stadium on UK’s campus. Tech is the No. 3 seed and will be the visitors against the second-seeded Irish.

Tech will enter the tournament with a 35-19 record after reaching the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. The Hokies took on 11 teams that made the NCAA Tournament (eight outside the ACC). They have wins over NCAA Tournament teams Arizona, UCLA, Michigan, James Madison, Jacksonville State and North Carolina.

The Hokies will face Notre Dame in Friday’s first round at 5 p.m. while the Thundering Herd and Wildcats will play in the other game. Both games will be on ESPN3, an online broadcast.

Notre Dame is 43-13 on the season and received an at-large bid out of the Big East. Kentucky is 38-18 and seeded 12th in the country, earning an at-large bid from the Southeastern Conference. Marshall won Conference-USA and sits at 35-18. Tech has not faced any of these three teams this season.

Tech is just 3-11 all-time against Notre Dame, but did win the matchup last year in Orlando. The Hokies are 7-4 against Marshall and 2-0 against Kentucky.

This will be Tech’s first softball games ever in the Bluegrass state.

Also making the tournament from the ACC were champion NC State, Florida State and North Carolina.

This will be Tech’s sixth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and second in a row. Four of the previous five appearances were in Knoxville, Tenn., while the other was in Columbus, Ohio.

More information will be available early in the week. Be sure to check back here or on Twitter for updates.

For updates on Virginia Tech softball, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Softball).