Heading into this weekend, the Terrapin softball team is trying to maintain the level of play that earned it a 3-1 record to start the season and three votes in this week’s Top 25 poll.
Although the three votes aren’t nearly enough to garner them a spot in the top 25, it is clear that the Terps raised some eyebrows with their season-opening 2-0 victory over No. 12 Michigan. The Terps hope to hold people’s attention at the Coastal Carolina Tournament this weekend with steady, consistent play and an eye toward improvement heading into their ACC schedule.
“A lot of pre-conference tournaments help us learn and grow,” said coach Laura Watten. “It’s a situation that we like to play a different variety and caliber of teams because it does help us find different areas we can work on and perfect before we roll into conference play.”
While the upcoming opponents, Coastal Carolina and Elon, appear on paper inferior to last weekend’s, the Terps know they can’t take any team lightly. Elon began their season with three games against Savannah State and outscored the Tigers 45-0 en route to a 3-0 start. Coastal Carolina is a young team with only four upperclassmen, but they do boast star senior infielder Allison Cantrell.
A big part of being able to play consistently, Watten said, is letting the players get used to each other on the field, so she will avoid lineup changes.
“This team being a young team, I want them to get as much experience playing together,” Watten said. “When you get into these [pre-conference] tournaments you have to kind of use them to give your core starting team an opportunity to play together and get to know each other on the field.”
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