Jan. 23, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
With the 2008 season set to begin in two weeks, the Illinois State softball team received some preseason national recognition Wednesday, as the Redbirds earned 23 votes in the USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division I Top-25 Preseason Poll. Illinois State's 23 votes tied with Missouri Valley Conference member Creighton, while Southern Illinois (7) was the only other Valley school to receive votes in the poll.
"It is a real positive for our conference to have three teams recognized in the preseason poll," said Illinois State head softball coach Melinda Fischer. "I think that our recognition in the poll is a reflection of what the team accomplished last year and to what the returning players accomplished in 2007. It's always great to be recognized, and now, we just need to concentrate on the start of the season."
The Redbirds' 2008 schedule features 11 teams recognized in the poll, including four schools that are ranked in the top-25. Illinois State will take on No. 3 Arizona State, No. 4 DePaul, No. 6 Tennessee and No. 23 Ohio State this season. The Redbirds will also face off against seven schools that received votes in the poll, including Georgia, Creighton, North Carolina State, Southern Illinois, Hofstra, North Carolina and Iowa.
Defending Women's College World Series champion Arizona finished first in the preseason poll with 27 out of a possible 29 first-place votes. Texas A&M, Arizona State, Alabama and Oklahoma rounded out the top-five, respectively.
Illinois State spent 11 weeks during the 2007 season as a nationally-ranked team, and reached as high as No. 17 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top-25 Poll. The Redbirds had a 9-7 record last season against ranked opponents, including victories over then-No. 17 Florida (1-0) and then-No. 12 UCLA (2-1) March 2, the first time in school history that ISU recorded multiple wins over ranked foes on the same day.
Illinois State will kick off the 2008 season at 10:30 a.m. CST Feb. 8 against Central Arkansas at the Central Florida Tournament in Orlando.
