BATON ROUGE — The eighth-ranked LSU softball team opens its 2001 season Friday on the road at the Fiesta Bowl Classic hosted by Arizona State.
“This weekend is a great test and challenge for our program, ” said new head coach Yvette Girouard. “We open with three teams that are ranked in the top five of the preseason polls and another that was a regional contender. This is a first for me to open the season on the road. However, we look at this opportunity as a win-win situation. Not many other spots in our schedule will provide us with this big of a challenge.”
Tournament games will be held at the Arizona State Farrington Softball Stadium in Tempe, as well as the Rose Mofford Sports Complex in Phoenix. The tournament field of 17 has the nationally-ranked Tigers facing three top 10 opponents in their draw during the weekend.
LSU is set to open the tournament against the fourth ranked Washington Huskies on Friday at 10 a.m. In 2000, the Tigers handed the Huskies their first loss of the season with a 4-2 win at the Texas Invitational, but fell to Washington two more times later in the season, 4-1 and 3-0. The Tigers are 1-5 all-time against the Huskies.
The Tigers will face first time opponent Wisconsin at 4:30 p.m. to finish off the Friday schedule.
On Saturday, LSU will start with Arizona at noon, followed by Massachusetts at 6:30 p.m. The Tigers are 0-3 against the Arizona Wildcats, having not seen them since 1999. In LSU’s only meeting with Massachusetts in 1998, the Tigers were defeated 2-0.
To finish the tournament on Sunday, the Tigers play back-to-back contest against UNLV and Arizona State beginning at 9 a.m. LSU has not seen UNLV in action and is 1-0 against the Sun Devils, having defeated them last season 6-4 at the NFCA Leadoff Classic.
LSU opens its home season on February 19th at Tiger Park with a double header versus East Tennessee State beginning at 5:30 p.m.