University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Softball Announces 2009 Schedule
9/18/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Sept. 18, 2008
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss Head Softball Coach Howard Dobson released the 2009 schedule Thursday that features nine teams, (Arkansas, Mississippi State, Louisiana Tech, LSU, Louisiana-Lafayette, East Carolina, UCF, Houston and Tulsa), that reached the postseason play last season. Home games against Baylor and LSU, four tournaments including two at home also highlight the slate.
""We definitely will have a challenging non-conference schedule," said Dobson. "We open up at home with a our own tournament with two teams that played in the NCAA, then, we play at Mississippi State, before playing in the UNLV Tournament that has at least nine postseason teams. Several of those teams will be ranked in the Top 25. We will have some strong competition in non-conference before we open our conference play."
The Lady Eagles open the season with their own Southern Miss Invitational (Feb. 6-8) that include Arkansas, Samford, Western Kentucky and Central Arkansas, before traveling to Mississippi State for a single game (Feb. 11).
Southern Miss then plays in the second of four tournaments when they travel to the UNLV Tournament which features nine teams that also played in postseason a year ago.
Southern Miss then will play Jackson State in a twin bill (Feb. 18), before hosting its second tournament (Feb. 20-22) as Louisiana Tech, Nicholls State, Alabama State and South Alabama come to the Southern Miss Softball Complex.
The Lady Eagles will also play non-conference opponents LSU (Feb. 25), travel to the Kennesaw State Tournament (Feb. 27-28), McNeese State (Mar. 3) and Louisiana-Lafayette (Mar. 4).
The Lady Eagles open C-USA play on the road against UAB (Mar. 7-8) with a three-game series.
"Our Conference USA teams are getting better and better each year and this season is no different," Dobson said. "This non-conference schedule will get those freshmen prepared for conference play."
Southern Miss hosts Baylor (Mar. 10) and Nicholls State (Mar. 11) before opening its home C-USA ledger with a three-game series against East Carolina (Mar. 14-15). Other conference home series include Memphis (Mar. 28-29), UTEP (April (18-19) and Houston (April 25-26).
Southern Miss also then travels to Marshall (Mar. 21-22), UCF (April 4-5) and Tulsa (May 2-3), which other road tilts include single games at Ole Miss (April 14) and South Alabama (April 16).
The Conference USA Championship is scheduled for May 7-9 in El Paso, Texas.
The Lady Eagles return nine letterwinners, including five position player starters and two starting pitchers from last year's squad that finished 25-30. The team also welcomes nine newcomers.
