February 11, 1999

The University of Kentucky softball team will open the 1999 season this weekend at the sixth annual Texas-Arlington/Pepsi-Cola Intercollegiate Classic in Grand Prairie, Texas. The Wildcats also opened the 1998 season at the UTA tournament.

UK (0-0, 0-0 Southeastern Conference) will face Nicholls State (0-5) in the opening round of pool play on Friday, Feb. 12. This is the first meeting between UK and the NSU Colonels, who were regionally ranked last season. “We are excited to open up the 1999 season and to test our newcomers against good competition,” said Beth Kirchner, who enters her third year as the head coach of the Kentucky softball program. “We’re really trying to gauge where we are and we will get to play some teams we played last year in this tournament, so it will be really nice to see what kind of progress we’ve made.”

The match up with NSU is set for 12:15 p.m. on Friday, followed by a game with Illinois-Chicago, which is ranked No. 24 in the USA Today/NFCA pre-season poll. The Wildcats will end pool play with a 12:15 p.m. game against Stephen F. Austin, who they lost to by a score of 4-1 in last year’s tournament. Pool play will be followed by a double-elimination tournament Saturday and Sunday.

The UTA tournament begins a four-week road trip for the Wildcats. Their home opener is on March 6, when they host the Kentucky Invitational Tournament.