Pre-season poll favors Greyhounds
FROST-FISCHER
By Staci Reafsnyder | Sports Editor
The 2009 Great Lakes Valley Conference pre-season softball poll, released Jan. 19, ranked the University of Indianapolis softball team second in its league, just behind Lewis University.
“This is the highest we’ve been ranked since I’ve been here,” head coach Melissa Frost-Fischer. said
Last season, the softball team broke every record in the offensive category except triplets. They ended the 2007-08 season with a 38-28 overall record that placed them at fourth in the league.
Frost-Fischer said that the core of the team is returning this season, along with seven newcomers. Six of those are freshmen and one is a transfer from Santa Rosa Junior College.
According to Frost-Fischer, the team has been practicing since the first week classes started. With the start of the spring season less than a month away, the Greyhounds haven’t had much time to practice outside due to the winter weather.
“The weather hinders us tremendously [this] time of year,” Frost-Fischer said. “We’re waiting for the weather to break to practice outside.”
Sophomore infielder Cat Sampson said that there has been a huge improvement from the fall practices to now.
“We’re all working hard,” Sampson said. “We’re excited to get this year started.”
So far, the preparations for the upcoming season have consisted of weight lifting and hitting inside, limiting the players’ conditioning.
In the first two weekends of the season, the team will play two tournaments, including the GLIAC/GLVC Crossover, Feb. 28 to March 1.
Sampson said it is good to have competition early in the season to see where the team stands.
According to Frost-Fischer, the team wants to pick up from where it left off last year and start the season stronger.
“[Being ranked] is a great moment for our program,” Frost-Fischer said. “[But] in all reality, a ranking is just a ranking.”
