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The dominant story of college softball's opening weekend would have to be the scope of the weather-related postponements and cancellations across the U.S. To take last Friday as an example, Ultimate College Softball's comprehensive collection of scores shows 13 tournaments suffering some type of disruption. Of the games that did get played, here are some results involving Top 10 teams.

At Arizona State's Kajikawa Classic, defending NCAA champion and preseason consensus No. 1 Washington won all five of its games. The Huskies did not face any highly ranked opponents, though. Arizona, No. 4 and 6 in the two major national polls, went 6-0 in the same tournament, including a win over Top 20 Northwestern. Kentucky upset No. 5/7 host ASU.

At the NTC tournament in Clermont, Florida, No. 3/4 Michigan lost to No. 7/8 Georgia, but the Wolverines left on a high note, pulling out a 13-inning win over No. 6/8 UCLA. The Bruins did beat Georgia, though.

No. 3/5 Florida won three of four in a University of South Florida-sponsored tournament in Clearwater.

Outside the tournament structure, No. 9 Missouri went down to consensus No. 2 Alabama and bested the Crimson Tide in a three-game series, two games to one.

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