Feb. 7, 2007
Game Notes - FAU Tournament
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ORLANDO - The 2007 softball season has now arrived, and UCF will immediately test itself at the FAU Miken Invitational Feb. 9-11. UCF has gone 2-3 in season openers with victories coming in 2004 and 2005, both at Bethune-Cookman.
Florida Atlantic Miken Invitational - Feb. 9-11
Feb. 9 - 4 p.m. - UCF vs. Miami (Ohio)
Feb. 9 - 6 p.m. - UCF at Florida Atlantic
Feb. 10 - 9 a.m. - UCF vs. North Florida
Feb. 10 - 11 a.m. - UCF vs. Pittsburgh
Feb. 11 - TBA - Championship Brackets
Live Stats
All UCF games this weekend will have GameTracker available online at www.UCFAthletics.com. Meanwhile, the Official FAU Tournament Homepage has all of the information fans need, such as team information and links to live stats.
Tournament Opponents
Miami University
UCF's first opponent of 2007, Miami University, ended its season last year with a 21-34 record. This year the Redhawks have lost both their most winningest coach in program history, Angie Jacobs, and their star senior designated player Kristen Hays. They did however gain a new head coach, Kelly Kovach Schoenly, who spent the last eight seasons as an assistant coach at Penn State and helped guide them to seven Big Ten Tournament appearances and six NCAA Tournaments as well as three top incoming freshmen.
Florida Atlantic University
UCF faces Florida Atlantic University in their second game of the season at the FAU Tournament in Boca, Raton, Fla. FAU went 35-25 last season and had an overall .265 batting average. The Owls are losing two key hitters from last year's squad that include shortstop Danielle Arriage, with 27 RBI and a .318 batting average, and third baseman Jessica Sachs, with 56 hits and 20 RBI. The Owls newcomers include freshman Jessica Soloway who finished her senior season with a .400 batting average, including nine doubles, five triples and 18 stolen bases and Ambar Jones who was named First Team All-County in 2005 and 2006 and holds the career records for hits, RBI, stolen bases and runs scored at Pembroke Pines Charter High School.
North Florida
On the second day of the opening FAU tournament the Golden Knights will face the University of North Florida. The Lady Ospreys finished last season with an overall record of 28-29. UNF has five returning starters and ten newcomers to the team, two of which are transfers.
Pittsburgh
UCF will face the Pittsburgh Panthers on the second day of the FAU tournament. The Panthers went 32-27 overall in the 2006 season and have three top returning players including sophomore utility player Jessica Dignon, .337 batting average last season, junior outfielder Joey Scarf, .315 batting average, and junior shortstop Sheen Hellon, with 30 RBI last year. The Panthers are starting off 2007 with five newcomers, four of which are freshman.
New Home For the Knights
The Golden Knights will start off 2007 in a brand new softball stadium. The state-of-the-art facility includes a spacious lockeroom, a lounge area, a training room, comfortable offices for each coach and a conference room. The stadium was finished last year and the Golden Knights were able to end their 2006 season with a few meetings on the brand new field. UCF's opening game at the new facility occurred March 14, 2006, where it faced its first C-USA opponent in the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes.This year, however, the girls are ready to dominate on their new home field as they have been practicing at the new facility and can now feel truly at home.
Dominating Regular-Season Tournaments
In five seasons of UCF softball, the Golden Knights own an impressive 95-55-1 record in regular-season tournaments. This weekend will mark the first time, however, that the Black and Gold travel to Boca Raton for an in-season tournament. UCF did play in two Atlantic Sun Tournaments held at FAU in 2004 and 2005.
Returning in 2007
This season is looking good for the Golden Knights with a team of top returning players. Senior third baseman Cici Alvarez had an impressive season last year that included a batting average of .313 and 22 stolen bases, which has made her only 11 steals away from breaking the UCF career record of 74. Senior outfielder Kacie Feaster led the team last season in home runs (five), doubles (eight) and total bases (71), and was second in runs scored (20), hits (46) and RBI (22). Senior shortstop Amber Lamb tied for first on the team in doubles (eight) and was second in home runs (three) and total bases (62). She placed third in hits (45) and RBI (19) and was eighth in Conference USA in assists (111).
What's New in 2007
UCF will have five new members to add to the Golden Knights softball roster for 2007. This list includes freshman second/third baseman Hillary Barrow, freshman outfielder Morgan Bullard, freshman pitcher Ashleigh Cole, junior outfielder Marquita Council and junior infielder Megan Murphy. Council played in 43 games at Santa Fe Community College before coming to UCF. She led the team in on-base percentage (.475) and stolen bases (30), was third in batting average (.394) and fourth in runs (33). Cole completed her high school pitching career with 719 strikeouts and a 0.44 ERA and was named to the Florida 5A all-state first team twice and the second team as a freshman and a sophomore.
Softball Broadcast Schedule
Almost the entire UCF home softball schedule will be broadcast over the internet this year. Twenty-six out of the 29 home games can be heard from a live broadcast at www.UCFAthletics.com. The broadcasts begin on Feb. 21 in the home opening game against Hofstra, and will be on hand for four of the five games of the UCF Tournament Feb. 23-25. The first C-USA home contest March 17, a 1 p.m. tilt vs. Southern Miss, also will be available to fans. Meanwhile, every game of the C-USA series with Marshall, UAB and UTEP, along with the C-USA Championships, are on tap as well.