The University of Kentucky softball team will open its 2006 season this weekend, Feb. 10-12, at the UNLV Alexis Resort Kickoff Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev. Second-year head coach Eileen Schmidt and her Wildcats will face a pair of ranked teams in the opening day of the three-day event.
The Wildcats face some elite competition in Las Vegas as it plays No. 13 Washington on Friday at noon (ET) in the season opener, followed by an afternoon match-up with No. 12 Oklahoma at 4:30 p.m. This is the first meeting between the Cats and Huskies. The Cats and Sooners have faced off three times and OU holds a 3-0 advantage in the series. Both UW and OU advanced to the NCAA tournament in 2005.
It doesn’t get any easier on Saturday as the Cats take on a pair of 2005 conference champions in Illinois-Chicago and Long Beach State. UIC won the Horizon League regular season title in 2005 with a 40-27 record and leads 5-1 in the all-time series with Kentucky. The Cats and Flames face off in a noon start. LBSU won the Big West last season after finishing 39-16 on the year. The Cats and 49ers met last season in Palo Alto, Calif., with the 49ers winning that contest by a final of 5-0. UK and LBSU are set to take the field at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday night.
UK wraps up play with its fifth and final game of the weekend when they face host-team UNLV at noon on Sunday. This will be the first meeting between the two schools.
?We have reached a point where we just need to play,? said Schmidt. ?Practice has been good and consistent but we need to gauge where we are against someone besides ourselves. This is a fun tournament and a tough tournament. Obviously, there are lots of distractions in Las Vegas and we are playing a very tough schedule, but we are excited to start the season.?
This weekend?s trip will be a homecoming of sorts for a pair of Wildcat staffers. Assistant coach Melissa Inouye played catcher and first base for the Rebels. In her last two seasons, she started all 120 games and she was the 2002 recipient of the UNLV Coaches Award. Inouye also earned a spot on the UNLV Dean?s List seven times and won Academic All-Mountain West Conference honors three times. Freshman pitcher Lydia Pierce is a native of Las Vegas. She was a four-year letterwinner at Clark High School where she was named first team All-Conference her final three years for the Chargers.
UK has opened each of its nine previous seasons on the road and is 2-7 in those contests. The Cats? two season-opening wins came in 1998 (1-0 win over Sam Houston State) and 2004 (9-0 win over Florida A&M).
