Softball announces 2007 schedule
12/04/2006 | 12:00:00 | Softball
Dec. 4, 2006
By Matt Crouch
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Being one of only 26 teams in the nation to make the NCAA Tournament in each of the past four seasons, the Southern Illinois University softball team has left the realm of "we're just happy to be here," and moved to "we expect to be here."
The first step to making a run at a fifth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance comes in scheduling. SIU head coach Kerri Blaylock and her staff have been hard at work, putting together the 2007 schedule, and may have one of the team's hardest ever.
During the 2006 season, the Salukis played nine games against five teams that made the NCAA Tournament. Already on the 2007 schedule are 15 games against 10 teams that made the 2006 NCAA Tournament, with the possibility of playing any of 10 other NCAA Tournament teams.
"It's kind of shocking. You always feel like you're going to adjust your schedule, lighten the load a bit, but we decided on a kind of philosophy that if you want to be the best, you have to play the best," said Blaylock.
"It toughens your kids up and we've had a good opportunity to do that over the past several years. What it's done is helped us acquire some good wins and some really good losses that have helped us get into the tournament."
Unlike other sports where the better teams shy away from playing one another, the better softball teams in the nation routinely find themselves paired up against other good teams as part of big tournaments like the NFCA Leadoff Classic and the Florida State Invitational, both of which are stops on the 2007 Saluki schedule.
"We play a lot of the `top teams' at a neutral site. So, you're playing a tournaments, you really don't know who's going to be in the tournament until you get there," said Blaylock. "It may be harder for us to get someone to come here, but when you go on the road, you have the opportunity to play a lot of RPI-building type teams."
After getting started at the Jacksonville University Invitational, the Salukis head to the Crowne Plaza Classic in Houston, where the will face Indiana and Louisiana State, a pair of NCAA qualifiers from last season.
"A big one that I've kind of pointed out that we haven't played since I've been here is LSU. Coach (Yvette) Girouard down there does a tremendous job. She's got probably 800 or 900 wins in Division I," said Blaylock. "She's amazing, they have a really good team and were a College World Series team a couple years ago."
The next challenge on the schedule is probably the biggest. The NFCA Leadoff Classic is the premier early-season softball tournament. Twenty of the 28 teams that competed in the tournament last season went on to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
"We love going to the NFCA Leadoff because it's the best softball competition you'll see in a three-day period at one site and you get to play great teams. It helps you out and I think it's a good learning experience for the kids," said Blaylock.
The Salukis are scheduled to play a 2006 NCAA Tournament team in each of its four games and could play any of 10 other NCAA Tournament qualifiers in the bracket portion of the tournament.
Southern Illinois is pooled together with North Carolina, Hofstra, Auburn and Michigan. While each of the four teams are highly-respected in the softball world, the name that sticks out is 2005 NCAA Champion Michigan.
"I love playing Michigan. I know the coach there very well. I respect their team, they were national champs a couple years ago. How can you not want to play that?." said Blaylock.
Another familiar name in that pool is Hofstra. Despite wins over Fresno State, Southern Mississippi and Pacific, it was Hofstra that laid a pair of losses on Southern Illinois to eliminate the Salukis from the 2004 NCAA Region VII Tournament.
"Hofstra beat us twice in the Stanford regional two years ago. That kind of stuck in my mind, so hopefully the kids remember that too," said Blaylock.
Following the NFCA Leadoff Classic, the Salukis open their home schedule with the Kay Brechtelsbauer Southern Classic. Ball State, Ohio, Western Illinois and Indiana are scheduled for SIU's home tournament.
Southern Illinois will then wrap up its tournament schedule with the Florida State Invitational where it will play a pair of NCAA Tournament teams in Florida A&M and Georgia.
With tournament play out of the way, the Salukis head in to Missouri Valley Conference play, opening the Valley season with a three-game series at home against Bradley.
The series will be the first meeting between the Salukis and their former assistant coach Buddy Foster as last season's meetings in Peoria, Ill. were cancelled because of rain.
Just because the tournaments are over, though, Blaylock sees no break for the Salukis.
The Valley placed three teams in the 2006 NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row and shows no signs of slowing down.
"I don't know if you ever see a break in the Valley," said Blaylock. "I think the Valley is tough all the way through. I really don't look for any opponent to really be different in the Valley, it's going to be a dog fight."
MVC regular-season champion Illinois State and tournament champion Missouri State both return a lot of players from last season's teams. Perennial challengers Wichita State and Creighton should also be tough after having down years in 2006.
The Salukis are set to open the 2007 season on Feb. 9 at the Jacksonville University Invitational. Play for SIU opens with a matchup against the University of North Carolina-Greensboro at 12 p.m. The Salukis will also play Jacksonville and Minnesota at the three-day tournament.