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Virginia Announces 2016 Softball Schedule
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Sept. 30, 2015
2016 Schedule
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia softball team announced its schedule on Wednesday with a slate featuring 20 games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago.
The Cavaliers will play 22 home games at The Park, including 12 games in Atlantic Coast Conference play, as Virginia hits the field for the third season under the direction of head coach Blake Miller. Admission to all softball games is free to the public.
“We have a good balance of competition on the schedule this year considering how young our team is this season,” said Virginia head coach Blake Miller. “It’s going to be a good test early with our western trips and then playing within this region. It’s going to be a very competitive conference this year with seven teams advancing to the NCAA Tournament last year. We have a lot of young talent, but they are maturing quickly.”
Virginia opens the season on the road, traveling to compete in four tournaments and a pair of doubleheaders before jumping into conference play.
The Cavaliers return to the Kajikawa Classic (Feb. 11-13) to open the season and will face Utah State, Boise State, Northwestern, East Carolina and San Jose State in the event hosted by Arizona State.
Virginia will head to the UT-San Antonio Tournament (Feb. 19-21) with games against Tulsa, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, North Dakota and a pair of games against the hosting Roadrunners.
The third weekend of play will see the Cavaliers head south to compete in a tournament hosted by USC Upstate (Feb. 26-28). Virginia will face USC Upstate, Ohio, LaSalle and Furman.
Tournament play will close at UNC-Wilmington (March 5-6) with the Cavaliers playing a pair of games against the host team and a pair of games against Radford. Virginia will then travel to play doubleheaders at Towson (Mar. 8) and George Washington (Mar. 9) before returning home to open ACC play.
The Cavaliers will host four ACC teams this season with Notre Dame (March 12-13), Louisville (March 19-20), Syracuse (April 9-10) and North Carolina (April 16-17) coming to town. Virginia will travel to face Pittsburgh (March 25-26), Boston College (April 2-3), Georgia Tech (April 23-24) and Virginia Tech (April 30-May 1).
Between weekend contests in conference action, the Cavaliers will host non-conference dates with Radford (March 29), James Madison (March 30), Liberty (April 20) and George Mason (April 27), and will travel for a midweek date at Longwood (April 23).
North Carolina State will host the ACC Championships the weekend of May 12-14, in Raleigh, N.C.
Virginia returns eight starters and 12 letterwinners from last year’s squad that set the school record for home runs. Those returning players accounted for 87 percent of the team’s 55 home runs in 2015. Among the returning players are junior Kaitlin Fitzgerald (Placentia, Calif.), who led the team with a .360 batting average, and 2015 home run leader, sophomore Allison Davis (Oak Hill, Calif.). The Cavaliers also welcome six newcomers to the squad.