The rejuvenated Belles will face St. Francis on Friday, a week after returning from their spring break training trip to Orlando.
Belles coach Dale Campbell said the team is healthy and charged to start its regular season against the Cougars (0-1) after going 2-4 during their fall campaign.
"It's a non-conference opponent but they are pretty local, in the Fort Wayne area, so this match will be interesting," Campbell said.
St. Francis opened their spring season with a 2-6 loss to the Indiana Institute of Technology on March 1. St. Francis went 7-8 during the fall season.
Friday's match will be held indoors at the Eck Pavilion, where weather won't trouble either team.
After the beautiful Florida weather, which allowed the Belles to fit in conditioning work, their opening match at Indiana Wesleyan was abruptly canceled due to foul weather conditions.
"They said the game had to be rescheduled because the weather was bad and they have no indoor facilities," coach Dale Campbell said. "Normally it has to be at least 50 degrees or else it's just too cool and windy to play outdoors for athletes."
The coaches from the Belles and Indiana Wesleyan have talked about the possibility of moving the game to early April, but no date has been confirmed yet. They are likely to release a date next week. Ironically, the Belles were scheduled to face St. Francis last year during spring training in Orlando, but that match was canceled due to weather conditions. That became a trend for the Belles, who missed more than three games due to rain and wind.
The Belles will host the Cougars at 5:30 p.m.
Contact D.H. Kim at dkim16@nd.edu
