Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Softball travels to Honolulu for Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament
03/06/2008 | 12:00:00 | Softball
March 6, 2008
By Kyle Herm
www.SIUSalukis.com
HONOLULU - The Southern Illinois softball team wraps up its tournament portion of the schedule at the Malihini Kipa Aloha tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii this Thursday, March 6 through Sunday, March 9.
The Salukis (10-7), who have faced top-25 teams in two out of the first four tournaments, will take on two more ranked opponents this week in No. 14-ranked Hawaii, and No. 22-ranked Washington.
SIU will also go up against Idaho State, Eastern Kentucky, and the Netherlands National Team in the four-day tournament.
Head coach Kerri Blaylock said taking on challenging teams will help the team in the long run, and prepare them for a tough Missouri Valley Conference season coming up.
"Our preseason schedule has been pretty brutal, but we did it for a reason," Blaylock explained. "We hope that playing team's like Hawaii and Washington, along with an Eastern Kentucky team that is 8-4 and the Netherlands National Team will ultimately prepare us for the conference season."
Southern Illinois begins tournament play against Eastern Kentucky at 2 p.m. HT, and meets host No. 14-ranked Hawaii at 7 p.m. HT on Thursday.
SIU is tied 2-2 all-time with Hawaii after splitting the four games against the Rainbow Wahine in the 2004 Malihini Tournament.
On Friday, SIU will take on Idaho State at 2 p.m. HT, and play the Netherlands National Team at 4 p.m. HT.
In the final day of regular competition, Southern Illinois will take on No. 22-ranked Washington at 10 a.m. HT, before beginning bracket play on Sunday.
Seeds will be given out to each team for bracket play, and the winner of the bracket will be deemed the tournament champion.
After holding Kansas and the No. 5-ranked Northwestern Wildcats to two and three runs respectively in the Coach B Classic last weekend at home, Coach Blaylock said she is looking for that type of pitching consistency to continue this week.
"The pitching staff (freshman Nikki Waters and Danielle Glosson, and junior Katie McNamara) has progressed passed my expectations at this point," Blaylock said. What Nikki and Danielle did against Kansas and Northwestern were two great performances, and we just have to keep them going in that direction."
