Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Softball set to open 2007 season at Jacksonville University Tournament
02/08/2007 | 12:00:00 | Softball
Feb. 8, 2007
By Matt Crouch
www.SIUSalukis.com
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Almost nine months since the Salukis lost a 5-4 heartbreaker to Notre Dame in the NCAA Regional Tournament, the Southern Illinois University softball team returns to the field for a new season, determined to make it to a fifth straight NCAA Tournament.
SIU, a team that finished the 2006 season with a 35-13 record, opens the 2007 season at the Jacksonville University Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla.
The Salukis will take on host Jacksonville, along with North Carolina-Greensboro and Minnesota in the three-day tournament.
The state of Florida and opening days have been kind to the Salukis in recent years. SIU has an overall 22-9 record in season-openers and head coach Kerri Blaylock currently sports a 6-1 record in season-opening games. The lone loss came against Marshall in 2004.
The Salukis aren't just successful in the opening games, but the tournaments as a whole have played out well for Southern.
This year marks the fourth time in the past five years that SIU opens the season at a tournament in Florida. Since 2003, the Salukis are 11-2 in season-opening tournaments in Florida and 21-8 overall in season-opening tournaments during Blaylock's tenure.
Southern Illinois should come in to the JU Tournament as the favorite, returning 13 letterwinners from last season's NCAA Tournament qualifier.
UNC-Greensboro returns 11 letterwinners and four starters from last season's team that went 20-42 and finished eighth in the Southern Conference. Host Jacksonville, a team in just its fifth year of existence, returns eight letterwinners and eight starters from a 2006 squad that went 22-37, finishing ninth in the Atlantic Sun.
Minnesota comes in to the tournament with 12 letterwinners and six starters from last year's squad that went 17-33 overall and finished 11th in the Big Ten.
The Salukis are set to kick off the season at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, Feb. 9 against UNC-Greensboro. SIU will follow up Friday night with a 7 p.m. ET game against host Jacksonville.
