BOWLING GREEN, Ky.— A tough non-conference slate and 26 homes games highlight a challenging 2015 schedule for the WKU softball team, as second-year head coach Amy Tudor released the schedule on Thursday.
"This is definitely going to be a tough schedule," said Tudor. "We have eight seniors that will lead us to make this class one of our strongest classes to come through here. When making the schedule, I felt like we needed to play tough teams and tough competition to get us ready for our first season in Conference USA and hopefully build for the NCAA Regionals and beyond."
In this upcoming season, WKU will face nine teams that went to the NCAA postseason in 2014, including Michigan, Florida State, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Lipscomb, Kentucky and Louisville. Five of those squads—Michigan, Florida State, Nebraska, Tennessee and Kentucky—went on to Super Regionals while Florida State and Kentucky made it to the Women's College World Series. The Lady Toppers have 16 teams in the schedule that finished last season in the top 100 RPI with five in the top 25.
"We have three SEC teams, two Big Ten teams and three ACC teams—it doesn't get much better than that in my opinion," said Tudor of the non-conference schedule. "I feel that the girls will be gearing up and ready to go for that challenge because I feel that this season will be a challenge. Playing all of these opponents on the road will hopefully help us in Conference USA, as our goal is to win the C-USA championship. I'm looking forward to it, though. I feel like it is brutal, but challenging, and that is why you do it."
The 2015 campaign kicks off in Troy, Ala., on Feb. 6 at Troy's Chick-fil-A Invitational with Buffalo. The following weekend is Florida State's Unconquered Invitational where WKU will face the Seminoles along with Michigan, Nebraska and Georgia Tech.
WKU hosts back-to-back tournaments beginning with the Hilltopper Spring Fling on Feb. 20-22 with Saint Louis, Eastern Illinois, Ohio and IUPUI. Then on Feb. 27-March 1, WKU will bring in Bowling Green, Indiana State, Cleveland State, Butler and Northern Kentucky for the Hilltopper Classic.
C-USA action begins March 7 with Louisiana Tech coming to The Hill. The Lady Toppers also host Florida Atlantic (April 3-4), Southern Miss (April 11-12) and Charlotte (April 25-26) while hitting the road to face Marshall (March 13-14), North Texas (March 28-29), FIU (April 18-19) and Middle Tennessee (May 2-3). The C-USA Tournament takes place May 7-9 in Miami, Fla.
Mixed in with those C-USA dates are non-conference contests with South Carolina, Tennessee, Ball State, Lipscomb, Tennessee State, Murray State, Kentucky and Louisville.
For information on tickets, visit WKUSports.com or call the ticket office at 1-800-5-BIGRED.
The 2015 WKU softball season is being presented by the United States Marines. This season, the Marines and WKU Athletics are working together to promote the outstanding athletic and academic achievements of our female student-athletes. The Marines are proud to work with and support these future leaders of America.
For more information on WKU softball, visit WKUSports.com or follow the team on Twitter via @WKUSoftball.
