Mississippi Valley State Women's Softball (0-0) vs. San Jose State (1-0); Northern Illinois (0-0); Southeastern Louisiana (0-1); Southern Illinois (0-0)
Date(s): Friday, Feb. 08, 2019; Saturday, Feb. 09, 2019; Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019
Time(s): 5:00 p.m. (CT); 11 a.m., 3:30 p.m.; 10:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m. (CT)
Facility: North Oak Park (Hammond, LA)
 
DEVILETTES OVERVIEW: Mississippi Valley State (0-0) will open the 2019 season this weekend at the Southeastern Louisiana Tourney playing five games against four teams in three days. The Devilettes are coming off a 9-9 Southwestern Athletic Conference record last season and a 14-31 overall record. Head coach Lee Smith is entering his 15th season with MVSU where he has accumulated a 396-466 overall record. Under Smith's direction, the program has made eight NCAA tournament appearances and has had 61 student-athletes named All-SWAC. The Devilettes ranked fourth in triples per game (0.20) amongst the SWAC in 2018. Individually, senior Dejanae Gage led the conference in sacrifice flies (4), junior Jodeci Afoa-Tuia ranked third in sacrifice flies (3), and sophomore Deshonte Smith led the conference in triples per game (0.09). The season ended for the Devilettes with a SWAC tournament appearance falling 4-3, to Prairie View. This season, Coach Smith returns 13 players including senior Kailyn Dunn, a pre-season All-SWAC First Team member. Afoa-Tuia and Smith were recognized on the pre-season team representing the Devilettes on the SWAC preseason second team. Afoa-Tuia finished with a team-best 24 RBIs and on the mound pitcher, Alyssa Montes led the team with 73.2 innings posting a 6-8 record with 35 strikeouts.
 
SAN JOSE STATE OVERVIEW: San Jose State (1-0) defeated Southeastern (6-2) in their season opener on Thursday, Feb. 7, 6-2. The Lady Spartans went 38-21 in 2018 with a 10-5 road record and at 12-9 record at neutral sites. A member of the Mountain West Conference SJSU complied a 16-8 conference record.  SJSU is under the direction of 12th-year head coach Peter Turner and has established himself as the winningest coach in the program's history. In 11 seasons, Turner has registered a 323-291 (.526) record. Last season, the Lady Spartans ranked in the top-3 of their conference in fielding percentage (0.965), on-base percentage (0.395), scoring (5.69), double plays per game (0.57), and hit batters (13). Nationally, they were No. 7 in double plays per game, 12th in hit batters, 19th in on-base percentage, and 25th in scoring. Madison Aurin led the conference in runs batted in per game (1.06) and sacrifice flies (5) while ranking second in toughest to strikeout (24.2). Aurin also ranked 15th in the nation in sacrifice files, 23rd in RBI per game, and 31st in toughest to strike out. SJSU returns 14 players from last season, including Caroline Bowman who had a conference and national first place ranking in hit batters (1) and Cassidy Clark who ranked fifth in sacrifice flies with three.
 
NORTHERN ILLINOIS OVERVIEW: Northern Illinois (0-0) is a member of the Mid-American Conference where they went 11-11 during the 2018 season. Under the direction of sixth-year head coach Christina Sutcliffe, Northern Illinois recorded a 24-32 record last season with a 6-11 record on the road and 10-15 record at neutral sites. Sutcliffe has a 216-242 (.472) record through her nine years of coaching at the collegiate level. Last season the Lady Huskies led their conference in triples per game (0.36) ranking fifth in the nation. The Lady Huskies also ranked third in stolen bases per game (1.02) within their conference. Coach Sutcliffe returns 13 players, including three that led the team's batting average in Jenny Van Geertry (.385), Sam Schmidt (.348), and Alaynie Woolard (.301). All three started in all 56 games last season. Geertry ranked in the top three in the conference in batting average, hits (65), on-base average (.475), runs per game (0.79), triples (6), and triples per game (0.11). Woollard also led the conference in triples (9) and triples per game (0.16) and ranked second in the nation for both categories.
 

SOUTHEASTERN LOUSIANA OVERVIEW: Southeastern Louisiana (0-1) was preseason picked to finish fourth in the Southland Conference this season. The program returns 15 players and five positional starters from last season's team that finished 38-21, setting a new single-season school record for victories. From that group, Ali McCoy and Madison Watson were named to the preseason All-Southland team. The Lady Lions are headed by fourth-year head coach Rick Fremin. Fremin who comes from stints at Belhaven and most recently Jackson State has an overall record of 391-278 (.584). Under his direction, the Lady Lions have an overall 64-50 (.561) record. Last season, Southeastern led the conference and nation in stolen bases (3.12) while ranking first in the Southland in triples per game (0.34). The Lady Huskies also ranked in the top three for WL percentage (0.644), scoring (5.41), earned run average (2.99), and batting average (0.283). Individually, Rebecca Skains led the conference in sacrifice flies (5) and toughest to strikeout (26.3).

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS OVERVIEW: Southern Illinois (0-0) returns 13 letter winners and eight starters, including four who earned All-MVC honors a year ago. Last season the Salukis went 21-22 and 12-12 in MVC play. They advanced to the MVC title game for the second-straight year.  The Salukis were picked second in the MVC with Maddy Vermejan, Katelyn Massa and Brianna Jones all selected to the 2019 Preseason All-MVC team. Southern led the Valley in runs (249), home runs (47) and RBI (228). Jones led the Valley in wins (26) complete games (26) and innings pitched (232.1).
 
UP NEXT : The Devilettes will continue on the road in Louisiana as they compete in the Louisiana Tech Tournament February 15 through February 17. MVSU will face Louisiana Tech, Abilene Christian, Wichita State, and Southeast Missouri State.