St. John's University Athletics
2015 St. John's Softball Schedule Announced
12/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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· 2015 Softball Schedule
· 2015 Downloadable Schedule (PDF)
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QUEENS, N.Y. – After leading the St. John’s softball team to its best season in over a decade, head coach Amy Kvilhaug has unveiled the schedule for the 2015 season as the Red Storm looks to make its second-consecutive trip to the BIG EAST Championship. The 53-game schedule includes nine teams from the 2014 NCAA Tournament, seven conference champions and a total of 33 teams across 19 different conferences.
“Playing against these nine NCAA Tournament teams and seven conference champions goes right along with the philosophy of our program,” said Kvilhaug. “It challenges our athletes to play at a high level and it builds the level of our conference’s RPI.”
The 2015 season opens up in Buies Creek, North Carolina, as St. John’s competes in the Hampton Inn Invitational, hosted by Campbell University, from Feb. 6-7. The Red Storm will open the two-day tournament on Friday with games against Youngstown State and Presbyterian before returning to face Towson and Maryland Eastern Shore for the final day on Saturday.
From there, the squad will head to Tampa, Florida, to compete in the highly-competitive USF Presidents Day Weekend Tournament from Feb. 13-15 as it takes on three teams from the 2014 NCAA Tournament, including a tough Tennessee team who made an appearance in the Norman Super Regional last year. After opening the tournament with games against the two-time defending A-10 champion Fordham Rams and the host-USF Bulls, the Red Storm will take on Florida Gulf Coast University and Detroit University before a final game against the Lady Vols on Sunday, Feb. 15.
After a week off from competition, the team will head out to the West Coast for a week-long spring break trip in California, home to nine of the Red Storm’s 21 players. Following trips to Cal State Northridge (Feb. 24) and UC Riverside (Feb. 25), the Red Storm will head to San Diego to compete in the 2015 San Diego Classic from Feb. 27-March 1.
The three-day tournament opens against one of the top teams in the nation in Oregon, who finished in the Final Four last season, before rounding out the opening day against host-San Diego State later that evening. On day two, the Red Storm will take on Grand Canyon and Cal Poly before rounding out its California stay with a final game against North Dakota on March 1.
From there, the Red Storm will return to the East Coast to compete in its fourth tournament of the year in Washington, D.C. as it takes on Army and host-George Washington in the three-day event.
With four early-season tournaments in the books, the Red Storm will return home to Queens for the inaugural St. John’s Invitational from March 13-15.
“The reason that I decided to go with the inaugural home tournament is because I like to have something relatively close to home to help get our bearings back playing in the Northeast, so I figured we might as well have the chance to play at home,” added Kvilhaug.
For the first time in the history of the 14-year old diamond, Red Storm Field will play host to a spring tournament as Manhattan, Fairleigh Dickinson, Hofstra, Morgan State and Mount St. Mary’s head to Queens for the three-day event.
St. John’s will open the weekend with games against Manhattan and Hofstra on Friday before rounding out its tournament weekend on Saturday against Fairleigh Dickinson and Mount St. Mary’s.
After five weekends of tournament action, the Red Storm will host Dartmouth in a double header on March 19 before opening conference action with a rematch of the 2014 BIG EAST Championship as the Red Storm hosts defending-champion DePaul on March 21-22.
“I’m excited about the BIG EAST,” said Kvilhaug. “I think it is an awesome opportunity, not only for St. John’s but for all eight teams in the league because from the top to the bottom, anyone of us has a chance to win. Eight schools with around 20 athletes each, that means that 160 student-athletes all get to head into the season believing that they have an opportunity to win the BIG EAST. Every game is going to matter.”
Following a non-conference matchup with LIU Brooklyn on March 25 to round out a 10-game homestand, the Red Storm will head out to Indianapolis, Indiana, to take on conference-foe Butler from March 28-29.
Surrounded by the Easter-holiday weekend, the Red Storm will return to Queens to host Georgetown in a BIG EAST Semifinal rematch, playing in a doubleheader on April 2 before returning to action on Saturday, April 4 for the final game of the series.
St. John’s will continue its tour around New York with non-conference matchups against Manhattan (April 7) and Stony Brook (April 8) before hosting Providence in a three-game series from April 11-12. The doubleheader against the Friars on April 11 will also be the Red Storm’s first game broadcasted live on the newly created BIG EAST Digital Network.
Following a non-conference battle at home against Iona on April 15, the Red Storm hits the road for a three-game set against local rival Seton Hall (April 18-19) before heading out to Omaha, Nebraska, to take on Creighton on April 25-26.
After its final non-conference game of the season on the road against two-time defending A-10 Champion Fordham Rams (April 29), a team who has NCAA Tournament appearances in four of the last five years, the Red Storm rounds out the 2015 regular-season schedule with a three-game series against Villanova on May 2-3 in hopes to return to Rosemont, Illinois, for the 2015 BIG EAST Tournament.
For all the latest news on the St. John's softball team, log on to RedStormSports.com and follow the team (@StJohnsSoftball) on Twitter. You can join the conversation with the hashtag, #SJUSB. If you would like to be added to the
