St. John's University Athletics
St. John??' Softball Announces 2007 Schedule
11/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
The St. John???s softball team and head coach Amy Kvilhaug have announced the program???s 2007 season schedule. The team will face one of its most competitive schedules in recent years, taking on 10 teams that advanced to the Women???s College World Series (WCWS) and four that spent the 2006 season ranked among the best teams in the country.
???I favor aggressive scheduling,??? said first year head coach Kvilhaug. ???I believe you must play the best in order to be the best. Early season tournaments have us paired up against the likes of Michigan (2005 NCAA Champions) and Texas, who spent the majority of last season ranked as the No. 3 team in the nation. This will prepare us for BIG EAST play where the conference traditionally has several teams in the Top 25.???
The Red Storm is coming off a year in which it advanced to the BIG EAST Tournament for the first time since 1994. The 2006 season was also highlighted by a win against then-No. 19 Louisville; it had been three seasons since St. John???s defeated a nationally ranked opponent.
Nine letterwinners return to the diamond for St. John???s in 2007, including seniors Loren Anguiano, Kim Lerch and co-captain Tami Hill. Juniors Danielle Estrada, Lisa Geer, co-captain Bionka King and sophomores Roxann Struble, Alyssa Clark and Melissa Pilley, will also be back this season. Five freshmen round out the Red Storm squad.
Kvilhaug will take the reigns in her first season as head coach for St. John???s. She comes to the Red Storm with a 127-115 overall record compiled at Radford University in Radford, Va., and earned Big South Co-Coach of the Year in 2005. Kvilhaug is no stranger to the BIG EAST as she played and coached for Providence College. She earned Rookie of the Year in 1993 as well as many other accolades.
St. John???s will open the season on Feb. 16, at the Florida Atlantic Tournament in Boca Raton, Fla. Long Island, Florida Atlantic and Michigan, all of whom advanced to the NCAA Women???s College World Series, along with Maryland, will be on the three-day bill.
The Red Storm will take part in three additional tournaments before the start of the BIG EAST Conference season: the East Carolina Tournament, the University of Texas Tournament and the Hofstra Tournament. The University of Texas Tournament, which will take place March 2-4, has St. John???s pitted against Texas, who finished the season as the third ranked team in the nation and made it to the semi-finals of the WCWS. The Hofstra tournament will showcase local talent such as Stony Brook and Hofstra.
Monmouth College will help St. John???s open the home portion of its schedule on March 21 at Red Storm Field. The Red Storm will play 10 doubleheaders at home overall during the 2007 campaign, seven of which are BIG EAST contests. St. John???s will look to use its home field advantage as Providence, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, South Florida and Louisville all finished in the top of the conference. For the second consecutive season, St. John???s will close out the regular season and the BIG EAST season at home the weekend of May 5-6 when it hosts South Florida and Louisville. The Louisville/South Florida weekend proved to be an important one last season, as the Red Storm split its games with Louisville and dropped two tightly contested games to South Florida.
???As always, we look forward to match ups against Louisville, USF and Notre Dame, but we will look past no one,??? said Kvilhaug. ???The BIG EAST has proven to be one of the top conferences not only on the east coast but in the nation. Teams are comparable and there is a great deal of parity in the league. On any given day, anyone can beat anyone.???
The conference season will officially begin for the Red Storm with a road trip to Notre Dame and DePaul the weekend of March 24-25. The Fighting Irish are the defending BIG EAST Champions after defeating Louisville, 1-0, in the conference championship game. In its first season as part of the conference, DePaul finished fifth overall and advanced to the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament.
Notre Dame will once again host the BIG EAST Conference Tournament on May 10-12, in Belleville, Ind.
For the most up-to-date information on the Red Storm softball team and all of St. John???s athletics, please visit www.RedStormSports.com.
