Linda Kalafatis Last Quotations

Our biggest question is how do we replace the consistency at shortstop that we had the last four years with Jennifer Johnson . We also need to establish our pitching depth and the catcher position. Like last year, I feel very good about our offense, which is why our defense will be so important.

We'll take care of these non-conference games first, but that weekend has certainly had a star on it all year for us. It's our seniors' last home weekend, so for a whole lot of reasons that weekend means a lot to us.

Alabama is a great program in the SEC and Louisville won a very good Conference-USA last year. Louisville beat us on our field in the fall so we'll be excited to play them again when we're at full strength.

Through and through the Big Ten is a battle every game. We were a step away from the NCAA tournament last year and that's part of the reason we put a challenging schedule together for 2006. We'll have to show up every day, wire to wire. This could be our toughest schedule ever.

Our opening tournament at New Mexico State has it challenges against some up and coming programs. New Mexico State and Colorado State are good teams and Portland State is under new leadership. UT-San Antonio led the nation in home runs last year. Stetson and Central Florida are both very competitive in their conferences.

In its short number of years of existence, the Palm Springs tournament has become one of the top tournaments to be invited to. Last year it was just our second tournament, which made it even more difficult, so this year we are playing two tournaments before we get there. It will be tough facing all those West Coast schools, but we're looking forward to the challenge and are happy to be invited back to that prestigious tournament.

Megan probably gets to the ball quicker than anyone in our outfield. Offensively she has good instincts and loves to hit with runners on base. Liz became our starting centerfielder by the end of the year last year and became an even better hitter through the fall. She has as good an arm as anyone in the Big Ten in centerfield.

As a team, you feed off each other. We've really started to swing the bats well here in the last couple of weeks.

Coming off facing some of the best teams and best pitchers last weekend in Palm Springs, I told the team this weekend was pivotal. Those first weekends were a part of our growth and now we need to be in full swing and show who we are this time. I'm so proud of our kids that we stayed tough tonight. Alabama doesn't lose much on their field.

I think there is a little bit of mental letdown there for sure. We've done a little bit of that here in the last couple of weeks, and we're certainly not happy with them.