Softball Announces Full Spring Schedule

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - North Florida softball announces its full 2022 schedule that features three home tournaments and four matchups against teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season.

UNF plays 45 games in the state of Florida and hosts 34 games. The only times the Ospreys will head outside the Sunshine State will be for a weekend series at Jacksonville State and a doubleheader at Georgia Southern.

"It's going to be an exciting year for the ASUN, as we add three new opponents to our conference schedule," said head coach Marcie Higgs about the 2022 schedule. "When we add opponents who have competed in the post season and strengthen our conference, it is even more important that we play a high-caliber preseason to prepare for that level of play. We are fortunate to be able to play three of these weekends on our home field and have an exciting mix of opponents coming in to challenge our team."

OF NOTE

North Florida hosts UF on Feb. 22 after playing them at home during the fall season.
The Ospreys plays 24 ASUN games (seven of eight conference series hosted in the state of Florida).
UNF will host three home tournaments in the River City Leadoff (Feb. 11-13), the JU-UNF Invitational (Feb. 18-20), and the UNF-JU Spring Break Challenge (Mar. 4-6).
Will compete in one in-season tournament, The Spring Games, from Feb. 25-27 in Leesburg, Fla.
Hosts four home ASUN series (Lipscomb, Central Arkansas, Kennesaw State, Liberty).
Plays Florida (Feb. 22 at UNF; Feb. 23 at UF), Florida State (Mar. 30 at JU), and UCF (Apr. 6 at UNF) in the same season for the first time since 2018.
Set up to face four teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season (UF, FSU, UCF, Liberty), including one team that made the College World Series (FSU).
Only two road trips outside of Florida (Jacksonville, Ala. & Statesboro, Ga.).
River City Rumble (Apr. 9-10 at JU); UNF took both regular-season series last season.
11 straight games will be played in Jacksonville, Fla. from Mar. 30-Apr. 16 (seven games at UNF, four games at JU).
UNF takes on teams from seven different conferences (SEC, ASUN, Patriot, OVC, ACC, AAC, SBC).

TOURNAMENTS AND UF SERIES

North Florida will open their season with back-to-back weekend tournaments, where they will play five games each at the UNF Softball Complex. They will then play Florida in a mid-week home-and-home series. It will be the first time in 11 previous matchups that UNF will play host to UF, as they look for their first win against the Gators in school history.

After the two home tournaments and the Florida series, the Ospreys will head down to Leesburg, Fla., to play in The Spring Games from Feb. 25-27. They will play their final regular-season tournament of the season when they host their third home tournament, the UNF-JU Spring Break Challenge, from Mar. 4-6.

NON-CONFERENCE PLAY

After tournament play, UNF plays a set of non-conference games against Holy Cross and Tennessee State from Mar. 8-9. The Ospreys' only previous matchup against Holy Cross was a 3-1 win in 2019, while they will be playing Tennessee State for the first time in program history.

Their next non-conference opponent will be against Bucknell in a mid-week doubleheader that sits in between two conference series. On Mar. 30, they will prepare for the challenge of playing Florida State, who were the runners-up at last season's College World Series, at JU in a neutral site game. They have their sights set on taking down the Seminoles for the first time since Mar. 23, 2009.

The Ospreys host UCF on Apr. 6 in another non-conference mid-week game. They will be searching for a win against the Knights in back-to-back seasons after taking the first game of a doubleheader in walkoff fashion last season. They will hit the road for their final non-conference matchup in a doubleheader against Georgia Southern on Apr. 20, in which the Ospreys have won their last four matchups dating back to 2019.

ASUN CONFERENCE AND JACKSONVILLE HOME STANDS

North Florida plays eight three-game series in conference play for a total of 24 ASUN games. They open their conference play on the road against FGCU from Mar. 12-13. They will play Lipscomb in their conference home-opener from Mar. 19-20.

The Ospreys head to Jacksonville, Ala., for their first of two out-of-state trips this season when they play ASUN newcomer Jacksonville State. They return to UNF the following weekend where they will play Central Arkansas, another newcomer to the conference.

The River City Rumble will take place at JU from Apr. 9-10, where they look to win their third straight regular-season series against the Dolphins. UNF will be back on campus for their matchup against Kennesaw State the next weekend before heading to Stetson to play from Apr. 23-24.

The Ospreys play their final home games from Apr. 30-May 1 against Liberty, who are the reigning ASUN tournament champions. They have not played against Liberty since 2019 due to travel constraints from the COVID-19 pandemic over the past season.

The 2022 ASUN Championship will take place from May 10-14 for an automatic bid in the NCAA Softball Tournament.

GET TO KNOW THE OSPREYS

The Ospreys roster features 18 returners and six newcomers.
Five of the six newcomers are transfers, including a pair of UCF graduate transfers in Hayley Bejarano and Takiya London.
Hadlee Reichert, who hit .526 and posted 28 RBIs her senior year of high school, is the only freshman on this year's team.
Catcher Ashley Goebel led the team last season in batting average (.397), hits (48), slugging percentage (.488), and on-base percentage (.434%).
Shortstop Kayla McGory, who batted .256 with four home runs last season, leads the team in experience with this being her sixth year on the roster this upcoming season.
Shannon Glover, Halle Arends, and Kayla Harper, all who have earned ASUN All-Freshman honors, will look to improve on their early success coming into this season.
Morgan Clausen, as well as Arends, combined for 20 of the team's 21 wins from last season and averaged a 2.70 ERA.

2022 FULL SPRING SCHEDULE

vs River City Leadoff (Feb. 11-13)
vs JU-UNF Invitational (Feb. 18-20)
vs Florida (Feb. 22)
at Florida (Feb. 23)
at The Spring Games (Feb. 25-27)^
vs UNF-JU Spring Break Challenge (Mar. 4-6)
vs Holy Cross (Mar. 8)
vs Tennessee State (Mar. 9)
at FGCU (Mar. 12-13)*
vs Bucknell (Mar. 16)
vs Lipscomb (Mar. 19-20)*
at Jacksonville State (Mar. 26-27)*
vs Florida State (Mar. 30)^
vs Central Arkansas (Apr. 2-3)*
vs UCF (Apr. 6)
at Jacksonville (Apr. 9-10)*
vs Kennesaw State (Apr. 15-16)*
at Georgia Southern (Apr. 20)
at Stetson (Apr. 23-24)*
vs Liberty (Apr. 30-May 1)*
at ASUN Tournament (May 10-14)^

Bold = Home Games
* = ASUN Teams
^ = Neutral Site Games

OF NOTE

TOURNAMENTS AND UF SERIES

NON-CONFERENCE PLAY

ASUN CONFERENCE AND JACKSONVILLE HOME STANDS

GET TO KNOW THE OSPREYS

2022 FULL SPRING SCHEDULE

Players Mentioned

Halle Arends

Morgan Clausen

Shannon Glover

Ashley Goebel

Kayla Harper

Kayla McGory

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