Softball Releases Complete 2025 Schedule

ORLANDO – The UCF softball team has announced its complete schedule for the upcoming spring 2025 regular season, a slate that features 54 total games, including 31 home games, 17 true road games and six neutral site games. The Black and Gold will also host three weekend tournaments in the first four weeks of the season.

Of the Knights’ 33 opponents, four won their conference’s tournament championship and two won their conference’s regular-season title. UCF will also match up against 14 teams that were selected for 2024 NCAA Tournament participation, nine that advanced as far as the NCAA Super Regionals, and three that punched their ticket to the 2024 Women’s College World Series, highlighted by the four-time defending National Champion Oklahoma Sooners.

The Knights’ 2025 opposition’s aggregate win percentage equated to .571 (1,030-774-4) throughout the 2024 campaign, highlighted by eight teams that eclipsed 40 wins and two that reached at least 50 victories (Oklahoma and Florida).

Black & Gold Classic – Feb. 6-9 – Orlando, Fla.

The Knights will commence their 2025 regular season with their annual Black & Gold Classic hosted at the UCF Softball Complex, during which the Black and Gold will square off against Georgia, CSU Bakersfield, NC State, Illinois and James Madison.

The meeting between the Knights and Bulldogs will represent the third time in the past four seasons that has seen UCF meet Georgia in Orlando on Opening Knight. The Knights toppled the then-No. 12 Bulldogs by a 7-6 final score in eight innings to kick off the 2022 slate, thanks in part to a Shannon Doherty walk-off solo home run, before then-No. 10 Georgia struck back with a 4-2 win to open the 2023 campaign. A win over the Bulldogs this spring would mark the second in program history.

Georgia represents the lone squad of the first five UCF will face that was selected for NCAA Tournament participation, as the Bulldogs went 4-1 in the NCAA Athens Regional to punch their ticket to the NCAA Los Angeles Super Regional hosted by then-No. 6 UCLA, finishing their season with a 43-19 final record.

The remaining teams are all relatively unfamiliar opponents for UCF, as the Black and Gold have not met any of the four more than six times in program history. The Knights’ most recent meeting with the Dukes came in Orlando Feb. 26, 2022, an 11-0 run-rule victory for UCF spearheaded by five innings of two-hit ball authored by now-senior right-hander Kaitlyn Felton. James Madison compiled a 31-22 final record in 2024.

NC State, coming off a 30-23 campaign in 2024, prevailed in the lone prior meeting between the two teams in 2008, while UCF leads the all-time series against the Illini 2-0, with the most recent meeting a 3-2 Knights win Feb. 10, 2018. The Black and Gold have never faced CSU Bakersfield.

Missouri and Liberty – Feb. 11-12 – Orlando, Fla.

The Knights will punctuate their season-opening homestand with back-to-back midweek contests against the Missouri Tigers and Liberty Flames. Both squads qualified for NCAA Tournament play a season ago, with Liberty (38-25) earning a spot in the NCAA Athens Regional as the winner of the C-USA Tournament’s automatic bid, and Missouri (48-18) hosting both the Regional and Super Regional rounds. Liberty’s 19-5 conference record a season ago clinched the regular-season title as well.

UCF remained perfect against the Flames with a 7-5 victory in Orlando Feb. 14 last season, pushing its lead in the all-time series to 7-0. Felton allowed two runs over four innings of work in the winning effort, while redshirt senior Stormy Kotzelnick came through with an RBI in a three-run fifth inning.

UCF met Missouri for the second straight season during the 2024 Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, California, last year, falling by a 5-1 final score. The meeting between the two squads this spring will mark the fourth in the last five years.

Caught her looking 💪

@katieeemarieeee pic.twitter.com/CWUVkwj5vj

— UCF Softball (@UCF_Softball) February 14, 2024

2025 Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational – Feb. 14-16 – Clearwater, Fla.

For the fourth consecutive season, the Knights will take part in the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational. UCF will face a plethora of talented teams over a three-day span, including Texas A&M, Auburn, Clemson, Ohio State and Florida State.

UCF’s scheduled matchups against Florida State and Auburn hearken back to the 2024 NCAA Tallahassee Regional, where the Knights went 1-2 against the two programs. The Black and Gold first authored the largest NCAA Tournament comeback win in program history against Auburn May 17, erasing a four-run fifth inning deficit en route to an 11-6 victory.

UCF would later see its season end with respective 5-1 and 2-1 (12 inn.) losses to Florida State and Auburn May 18, with the latter marking the longest NCAA Tournament game by innings in program history. Auburn would later fall in the Regional Final to Florida State, with the latter going on to the NCAA Norman Super Regional.

Texas A&M and Clemson join Auburn and Florida State as teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament a season ago, while Ohio State finished with a first-round Big Ten Tournament loss to Wisconsin and a 31-20 record. The Aggies forced the then-No. 1 Texas Longhorns to a decisive Game 3 in the NCAA Austin Super Regional, but were edged by the hosts, 6-5.

SpaceU Classic – Feb. 20-23 – Orlando, Fla.

The Knights will return from their first road trip of the season to host the second of three tournaments at the UCF Softball Complex, during which the team will meet Quinnipiac, FGCU (twice), Pitt and Columbia.

FGCU was the lone squad of the four to advance to the NCAA Tournament in 2024, earning an automatic bid as the winner of the ASUN Conference Tournament. The Eagles remained in-state for postseason play, going 1-2 in the NCAA Gainesville Regional with a 3-2 win over FAU.

UCF will look to continue its past success against FGCU this season, bringing an all-time 12-1 mark against the Eagles to this season’s matchups. The Black and Gold also own an all-time 4-2 record against Pitt (17-32 in 2024) in six prior matchups, have gone 1-1 against Columbia (16-24 in 2024) and won their lone prior meeting against Quinnipiac (20-25 in 2024) as well.

Charge On Classic – Feb. 28–March 2 – Orlando, Fla.

UCF’s final home tournament of the spring will welcome George Mason, Providence (twice), UNF and Georgia Southern to Orlando.

North Florida narrowly missed capturing the ASUN Conference Tournament title with a 7-6 loss to FGCU in eight innings, concluding a 35-19 season. The Knights lead the all-time series against the Ospreys 19-6 after sweeping the teams’ two meetings in 2024.

UCF boasts and all-time 6-0 record against George Mason (20-32 in 2024), with the last meeting between the two teams in 2019, and is also undefeated (4-0) against Providence (22-23-1 in 2024) in four all-time matchups. Against Georgia Southern (30-21 in 2024), the Black and Gold will look to break a 1-1 tie in the first meeting between the programs since 2018.

Home and Home vs. Florida – March 12, March 26 – Orlando and Gainesville, Fla.

The Knights will renew their in-state rivalry with the Florida Gators in 2025 after the two squads did not meet during the 2024 season. UCF will first travel to Gainesville for a March 12 midweek contest before later hosting Florida March 26.

Florida, a nationally-ranked top 10 team between the four major polls (NFCA/USA Today, ESPN/USA Softball, Softball America and D1Softball.com) in 2024, authored a 54-15 campaign last season that culminated in a Women’s College World Series berth.

The Gators were duly recognized for their efforts in post-season awards voting, most notably seeing sophomore Jocelyn Erickson earn 2024 NFCA Division I Player of the Year honors. Erickson was also joined by Korbe Otis, Skylar Wallace, Reagan Walsh and Keagan Rothrock in garnering NFCA Division I All-American selections, and she was tabbed Diamond Sports/NFCA Catcher of the Year as well.

Oklahoma Round Robin – April 4-5 – Norman, Okla.

For the third time in the last four seasons, the Knights will meet the nation’s best. Though the now-four time defending National Champion Oklahoma Sooners are no longer a member of the Big 12 Conference, UCF will make the trip to Norman, Oklahoma, for a non-conference round robin weekend that will feature two games between the Knights and Sooners, and one tilt against St. Thomas (MN).

The matchups between UCF and Oklahoma will mark the sixth and seventh in program history, and the first in Norman since the Knights made their first NCAA Super Regional appearance in 2022.

The Sooners most recently etched another chapter in the program’s run of dominance, riding a 59-7 record to the team’s fourth consecutive National Championship in 2024. The squad compiled its fourth straight season with at least 56 wins, as well as its eighth consecutive non-COVID-19-shortened 50-plus-win campaign.

Remaining Midweek Games – FAU, Stetson – Feb. 26, April 23 – Boca Raton and DeLand, Fla.

The Knights will also square off against FAU and Stetson in road midweek games, meeting the Owls in Boca Raton Feb. 26 and the Hatters in DeLand April 23.

Florida Atlantic earned the 2024 regular-season AAC championship, the first conference title in The American in school history, on the strength of a 21-6 conference record. Its 41-16 record overall was good enough to earn an at-large postseason bid, where the team fell in two games in the NCAA Gainesville Regional.

The Hatters, meanwhile, are coming off a 15-37 campaign in 2024. The Knights topped Stetson by a 4-2 final score in Orlando in the team’s lone matchup March 6 last season.

Big 12 Conference Play

UCF’s second Big 12 Conference slate will commence with back-to-back series against conference newcomers Arizona (March 7-9) and Arizona State (March 14-16). The Knights will also meet Iowa State, Baylor, BYU, Oklahoma State, Houston and Kansas to round out Big 12 play. For the full rundown on UCF’s second Big 12 schedule, click here.

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