Tide Softball Ranked Fourth in Coaches Preseason Poll
1/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?? The University of Alabama softball team, less than three weeks from playing its season opener, will enter the 2008 campaign as a top-five team. The Crimson Tide debuted at fourth on the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) preseason poll released Wednesday.
Alabama, who finished its 2007 season with a 55-10 record and a ninth-place ranking in the NFCA final poll, is the top-ranked team in the Southeastern Conference on the initial poll. Other SEC schools in the top 25 include No. 6 Tennessee, No. 9 LSU and 13th-ranked Florida. Four of the Tide’s non-conference opponents are also on the poll, including No. 7 Northwestern, No. 10 DePaul, No. 11 Washington and No. 17 Georgia Tech.
The Tide has finished in the nation’s top 10 in each of the last three seasons and earned the program’s first-ever No. 1 ranking early in the 2007 campaign. Alabama returns 13 letterwinners and nine starters from a team that finished third in the SEC and earned an NCAA Regional title a year ago.
The 2008 season opens on Friday, Feb. 8, when UA welcomes Jacksonville State, Purdue and South Alabama to Tuscaloosa to compete in the 2008 Hampton Inn Bama Bash. The Tide faces South Alabama in the opener on 3 p.m. at the Alabama Softball Facility.
