MARIETTA, Ga. – The Norfolk State softball team opens its 2008 season at the inaugural HBCU Showdown Tournament in Marietta, Ga. on Saturday. The 10-team tournament features teams from the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), the only two conferences comprised of historically black colleges and universities.
The Spartans take on Mississippi Valley State at 2 p.m. on Saturday and play Jackson State at 6 p.m. NSU ends tournament play on Sunday with matchups against Southern (9 a.m.) and Grambling (11 a.m.).
SEASON OUTLOOK
The main goal of the 2008 Norfolk State University softball team is clear and simple: win the MEAC Tournament Title. Under third-year head coach Kary Kankey, the Spartans are poised to achieve their goal and build on the progress they made in 2007. Some of the accomplishments NSU made last season include:
• Tallying the most wins since moving to Division I in 1997-98, finishing with a winning overall record (26-25), and finished with a winning MEAC record (13-1) for the first time since joining the conference
• Completing the program's first-ever conference sweep of Bethune-Cookman
• Ending a 15-game losing streak to Florida A&M, dating back to April 2002, in the program's first nationally televised game on ESPNU.
But despite the successes, the Spartans still could not get over the hump at the MEAC Tournament, and were eliminated on the first day for the second year in a row.
Kankey and her squad will be more focused this season and will use last year's setback as motivation to be successful. “After the success we saw last season, our players were really disappointed with their performance in the MEAC Tournament”, Kankey said. “Being eliminated on the first day of last year's tournament will be a huge motivational factor for us to do well this year”.
Kankey returns nine letterwinners from last season, but will have to replace All-MEAC players outfielder Cassandra Petway and second baseman Hitomi Greene, who graduated last year.
Some of the other issues Kankey will have to deal with are: the health of her top returning pitcher, replacing Greene at second base, and ensuring that her sophomores will repeat the success they had as freshmen.
Alyssa Velazquez (Aurora, Colo.), an All-MEAC second team pick in 2007, pitched a team-high 150.1 innings and was 9-9 with a 2.93 ERA. Velazquez suffered a serious illness in the off-season, however, and is Kankey's biggest question mark this season.
Kankey will need the remainder of her players to stay healthy so that they can make it through the season. She has a few options for the rotation of her lineup, and with the addition of six new players, Kankey will at least have enough players to try different things on the field.
