Compared to last season, the University of Hawaii softball team will play a slightly shorter regular-season schedule this spring. But the 50-game slate should still provide ample opportunity for the Rainbow Wahine to face quality competition.
UH, which played 54 regular-season games last season, released its 2014 schedule on Wednesday and will play 11 other teams that reached the NCAA regionals.
The Rainbow Wahine return seven players who started at least 30 games during last year’s 45-13 campaign that ended in the Seattle regional. They open the season Feb. 6 against Hampton in the Oceanic Time Warner Cable Paradise Classic. The tournament also features Delaware and UCLA, the first of three Pac-12 teams headed to Honolulu.
UH’s annual appearance in the Easton Desert Classic in Las Vegas opens with a game against host UNLV followed by its first meeting with Florida, the No. 2 seed in last season’s NCAA tournament and a Women’s College World Series qualifier.
UH returns home to host the Bank of Hawaii Invitational (North Carolina, San Jose State, Saint Mary’s) and the Spring Fling Tournament (California, Pacific, James Madison). All five teams in the Pepsi Rainbow Wahine Classic — UH, BYU, James Madison, Oregon and Valparaiso — are coming off NCAA tourney appearances.
"All of our home tournaments will feature marquee teams along with very competitive programs," UH coach Bob Coolen said in the release. "It will be really good competition that will test our young team."
UH opens Big West play at UC Riverside, March 28-29.
The team is in the midst of fall practice, which will culminate with the Kamaaina Classic Nov. 8-9. BYU-Hawaii and Chaminade join UH in the exhibition tournament.
UH’s alumni game, usually part of the fall schedule, could be played in the spring to fill an open weekend.
