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HomeSportsHome dates versus Lady Vols, Wildcats highlight 2011 APSU Softball Schedule

Home dates versus Lady Vols, Wildcats highlight 2011 APSU Softball Schedule

APSU Women’s Softball 
  
Austin Peay State University GovernorsClarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University’s softball team will host Southeastern Conference members University of Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as two classics at Lady Govs Field, to highlight the 2011 schedule, head coach Casey Dickson announced on Monday.

Tennessee and Kentucky are just two of six teams the Lady Govs will play in 2011 that qualified for the 2010 NCAA Tournament field as well as being among eight scheduled teams that ranked in the top-100 in RPI last season.

“We’re excited about the schedule,” Dickson said. “It’s exciting about playing in multiple tournaments, but also in bringing teams like Tennessee and Kentucky to Clarksville so our fans can see some of the top teams in the country play.

Lady Govs Softball. (Courtesy: Austin Peay Sports Information)
Lady Govs Softball. (Courtesy: Austin Peay Sports Information)

“We’re stepping up our game this year, even though we’re going to have bumps along the way. I still strongly believe that you have to play the best to be the best.”

Overall, 10 of Austin Peay’s 56 games will come against 2010 NCAA Tournament teams, with five more games coming against the RPI’s top -100 ranked teams, with six of those games being played at Lady Govs Field. APSU is scheduled to play Tennessee, March 29th, for a single game, and Kentucky, April 6th, for a doubleheader.

“Playing against top-ranked teams is what we want to do, not only to get a chance to beat them, but to elevate our program and our conference as well,” Dickson said. “I think our conference coaches are doing a good job of playing better schedules, which helps in the future that if a team didn’t win the conference tournament they could get an at-large bid to go to regionals.”

The Lady Govs open their schedule February 12th-13th at the Belmont/Hampton Inn-Brentwood Spring Classic, where they will face Wright State, IUPUI and host Belmont.

On February 19th-20th, Ball State, Belmont, Cleveland State and Missouri-Kansas City will join APSU in its first home classic, the Austin Peay Spring Classic.

Two more road tournaments follow, as APSU travels to the University of Mississippi, February 25th-27th, to play in the Red and Blue Classic and to the Buzz Classic, March 4th-6th,, hosted by Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

The Lady Govs final home classic will be held March 26th-27th, with APSU hosting Southern and Eastern Michigan.

The Lady Govs will open Ohio Valley Conference play on the road, March 12-13, at Morehead State, with other conference road games coming March 22th at Tennessee-Martin (doubleheader); April 2nd-3rd at Southeast Missouri; April 7th at Tennessee State (single game); April 16th-17th at Jacksonville State and April 3th-May 1st at Tennessee Tech.

Austin Peay’s home conference games are against Eastern Kentucky, March 19-20; Tennessee State, March 29th, for a doubleheader; Murray State, April 9th-10th; Eastern Illinois, April 22nd-23rd, and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, May 7th-8th.

The OVC Tournament will be held on May 12th-14th at the site of the regular-season champion, with the top six teams qualifying for the tournament field.

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