Saint Mary's will look to start their season off strong when they travel to Florida next week to take on a slew of opponents.
Taking on 10 different teams in just five days, Belles coach Erin Sullivan believes the trip will be the perfect way for the team to start the season.
"This spring trip will give us a good chance to iron out some little things we need to work on, and should be the perfect preparation for conference play," Sullivan said. "[The trip] will give us a good chance to figure out the line-up hitting wise, as well as figure out our pitching rotation."
South Bend's winter has not been kind to the Belles, Sullivan said.
"We've only been able to get outside to practice in the last couple of days," Sullivan said. "Most of our practice has had to be indoors. The games will give us a good chance to play outside and get used to the elements again. It will be interesting to see how the players step up and deal with the diversity [of the weather.]"
Sullivan believes the spring trip could be the start of a great season for Saint Mary's, having set lofty expectations and goals for the team to accomplish.
"We should have a very strong and competitive team this year," Sullivan said. "We're aiming to get back to our conference tournament, which means finishing in the top four of our conference. We also would like to finish with 20-plus wins, and to send our senior class out with a bang."
Sullivan believes her six seniors will play a very large role for the team this year, and will need to succeed for the team to be successful as a whole.
"Our three senior captains, Lauren Enayati, Kate Mitchell and Kristen Nelson are all great players and great leaders," Sullivan said. "They do a lot of great things off of the field and each has different strengths. We also have three other seniors on our team who are great leaders, without any of them we wouldn't win games. All are equal parts to our team.
"Everyone is really excited and expecting to do well this season. The players think they are a great team, [on which] everyone is equally important. They really feel and believe they can have a great season this year."
Saint Mary's starts off its spring trip and its season Sunday in Fort Myers, Fla.
Contact Nick Boyle at nboyle1@nd.edu
