Keep an eye this weekend on two softball teams that, regardless of how they fare, will have made Farmville proud.

Fuqua School’s girls team was gearing up at this writing for the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division III semifinals. With a semifinal win Thursday night, the Lady Falcons would play for the state championship Friday night in Dinwiddie. That’s quite an accomplishment for Coach LaDonia Mujahid’s squad, which beat Portsmouth Christian on Monday in the quarterfinals.

In Harrisonburg, meanwhile, the Longwood women’s team, which has put Farmville on the map nationally in recent years, begins play Friday afternoon in the NCAA Division 1 Tournament.

Veteran Coach Kathy Riley, who recently won her 600th game at Longwood, has built the Lancers into a mid-major powerhouse. Longwood is making its third NCAA Tournament appearance in four years after winning a second consecutive Big South Conference Tournament championship last weekend.

The Lancers, who also won the Big South regular-season title, look to be a legitimate threat to win the Harrisonburg regional and advance to next week’s super regionals. Longwood gets border neighbor North Carolina, which beat the Lancers narrowly during the regular season, in Friday’s opener of the three-day, double-elimination regional.

We’ll have thorough online coverage of Longwood and Fuqua throughout the weekend at www.FarmvilleHerald.com. We invite you to follow both home teams as they put Farmville in the state and national spotlights.