The University of Mississippi Athletics
Missy Dickerson Announces 2006 Ole Miss Softball Schedule
9/20/2005 | Softball
Sept. 20, 2005
OXFORD, Miss. - Fifteen home dates, including the Rebels' first three Southeastern Conference series, highlight a challenging 2006 Ole Miss Softball schedule, announced by first-year head coach Missy Dickerson on Tuesday.
The 2006 slate includes six opponents who finished the 2005 season ranked in the top 25 in the nation - SEC foes Tennessee (3), Alabama (7), Georgia (9) and Auburn (20) and non-conference opponents Texas (4) and Louisiana-Lafayette (19).
"I'm looking forward to the challenges of a schedule like this," said Dickerson, who owns a 112-56 career record as a collegiate head coach. "I'm looking for the team to improve on the fundamentals of softball and hoping to be competitive and fare well in the SEC this year as we turn the program around."
The Rebels will kick off the campaign with an extensive road trip which includes tournaments in Lafayette, La., Boca Raton, Fla., and Austin, Texas, as well as a series against Evansville in Evansville, Ind.
The Ragin' Cajuns Invitational (Feb. 11-12) features Grambling State, Louisiana-Lafayette and McNeese State. The Rebels travel south the next weekend for the Florida Atlantic Tournament (Feb. 17-19) which includes the Crimson Tide from the SEC in addition to Florida Atlantic, FIU, Missouri State and Long Island University.
The Rebels' first individual opponent is Evansville of the Missouri Valley Conference, who hosts Ole Miss for a three-game series Feb. 25-26.
Ole Miss next travels to Austin for the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational (March 3-5), which includes Houston, Texas and Dickerson's old team Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, who she led to a 42-11 record in 2005 and three straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
"The three tournaments to begin the season allow us to play several top-25 teams," Dickerson added. "I'm especially looking forward to the matchups against Louisiana-Lafayette and Texas. It should be a good, competitive start for our season and help prepare us for the beginning of conference play."
Ole Miss will host its first home games of the season when Southeastern Louisiana rolls into Oxford for a 5 p.m./7 p.m. doubleheader on March 8.
Conference series commence on March 11 with Ole Miss hosting LSU (March 11-12), Florida (March 18-19) and Arkansas (March 21-22) in the season's first SEC three-game tilts at a critical point in the campaign, according to Dickerson.
"Starting SEC play with LSU and Florida at home will be a tough task, and should give us a true test of where our overall program stands," Dickerson said. "The SEC is loaded with talent, and we face challenging battles against Georgia, Tennessee and Auburn on the road, but I am certainly looking forward to facing those kinds of challenges head-on."
This year's series with arch-rival Mississippi State is again split three ways, with one home, one away and one neutral site game. The Rebels and Bulldogs will meet in Jackson on April 5, while Ole Miss hosts the game on April 11, and State hosts on April 26.
Additional home SEC series include the always-exciting matchup with Alabama (April 8-9) and the Wildcats of Kentucky (April 29-30).
The Rebels travel to Athens, Ga. (April 1-2) for their first conference series away from home, while they also visit Knoxville, Tenn. (April 15-16) and Columbia, S.C. (April 22-23) before wrapping up the SEC schedule at Auburn (May 6-7).
Non-conference games mixed in are against Stephen F. Austin at home (March 14), Southern Miss in Hattiesburg (March 16), Mississippi Valley State in Itta Bena (March 29) and in Oxford (April 19) and Birmingham Southern at home (May 2).
The SEC Tournament is slated for May 11-14 and will be held in Athens, Ga. The eight SEC teams with the best regular-season records advance to the Tournament.
