Published: August 02, 2007
QUEENS, N.Y.
St. John’s head softball coach Amy
Kvilhaug released her team’s 2008 schedule Thursday. The Red
Storm will face a highly competitive lineup, featuring 10 games
against seven teams that advanced to the
2007 NCAA softball tournament. St. John’s will also play host to
two games against DePaul, which won in the NCAA Super Regionals
and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women’s College
World Series (WCWS).
“The BIG EAST schedule is extremely competitive, which is
why I strongly favor aggressive scheduling at the beginning of the
season,” said Kvilhaug, who is entering her second year as head
coach. “It prepares us better for such strong conference opponents
and will ultimately assist in furthering us into postseason play.
In order to be the best, we must play the best.”
Four of the Red Storm’s 2008 opponents either finished the
season or appeared in the ESPN.com/USA Today Softball Collegiate
Top 25 poll. LSU ended the year at No. 5 and DePaul at No. 11. In
addition to DePaul and LSU, St. John’s will face 2007 tournament
qualifiers in Louisville, Hofstra, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State
Fullerton and Notre Dame.
The schedule includes 14 teams that finished last year with a
winning record and 10 teams that won at least 30 games.
St. John’s begins its season on Feb. 15 in Baton Rouge, La. at
the LSU Tiger Classic. The LSU Tiger Classic is one of three
early-season tournaments before the start of BIG EAST Conference
play. The Red Storm will also travel to Southern California for a
nine-day road trip that includes the UC Santa Barbara Tournament
(Feb. 22-24), and Charleston, S.C. for the College of Charleston
Tournament (March 14-16).
St. John’s opens conference play on March 28 with a doubleheader
at the University of South Florida. The Red Storm will play BIG
EAST road doubleheaders against Louisville (March 30), Connecticut
(April 12), Providence (April 13), Syracuse (April 18) and
Pittsburgh (April 20).
St. John’s begins the home part of its schedule March 5 at
2:30 p.m. against Yale at Red Storm Field. The Red Storm hosts 11
doubleheaders, including BIG EAST contests against Seton Hall
(March 22), Notre Dame (April 5), DePaul (April 6), Rutgers (April
26) and Villanova (April 27). For the third consecutive
season, St. John’s will close out the regular and BIG EAST season
at home.
Louisville hosts the BIG EAST Conference Tournament on May 10-12
in Louisville, Ky.
Ten letterwiners return for St. John’s, which finished last
year 18-36, and 7-15 in the BIG EAST. Seniors Bionka King, Danielle
Estrada and Lisa
Geer are back for the Red Storm, which went 12-13 over its
final 25 games, including a 1-0 win over eventual BIG EAST
Conference champion Louisville on the final day of the season. St.
John’s welcomes five freshmen and two transfer students to its
roster in 2008.
For the most up-to-date information and statistics on St. John’s
Athletics, please visit www.RedStormSports.com or
call our hotline at 1-888-GO-STORM.