CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – The Drake University softball team is set to open the 2018 season at the annual UNI Dome Classic hosted by UNI, Feb. 9-11. This will be the fourth-straight season and the eighth time out of the past nine seasons, Drake starts its season in Cedar Falls.
 
The Bulldogs start 2018 on Friday evening against Green Bay at 7:15 p.m. before returning to face the Phoenix on Saturday afternoon at 2:45 p.m. followed by a 7:15 p.m. matchup against South Dakota State. Drake closes out the weekend on Sunday with games against Southeast Missouri State and UMKC at 11:45 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively. All five games will have live stats available on www.GoDrakeBulldogs.com.
 
Drake was picked to finish fourth in the 2018 Missouri Valley Conference Preseason Coaches poll with 74 points including two first-place votes. Only 14 points separated 2018 Valley favorites, Illinois State, and the Bulldogs.
 
Led by head coach Rich Calvert, who is in his 16th season at the helm of the program, Drake returns an experienced roster with nine upperclassmen and nine starters from a year ago. Five of those returning starters have earned All-MVC honors in their respective careers. Last season, sophomore Mandi Roemmich (West Des Moines, Iowa) earned All-MVC Second Team and NFCA Midwest All-Region Second Team honors after starting 46 games at shortstop and batting a team-best .380.
 
The Bulldogs also return 2016 MVC Pitcher of the Year redshirt junior Nicole Newman (Madison, Wis.) who was limited to only 12 games last season due to injury. Prior to the injury, Newman went 7-3 with a 1.27 earned run average and led the nation in strikeouts with 94. Newman, who is a two-time All-MVC First Team honoree, has a career record of 42-21 with a 2.38 ERA, including 11 shutouts and 555 strikeouts. Her strikeout total ranks sixth all-time at Drake.
 
Newman is joined in the pitching circle by senior Kailee Smith (Murrieta, Calif.) and freshman Nicole Timmons (Davenport, Iowa). With just eight starts in the circle in her career, Smith took over the No. 1 role last season after Newman's injury and started 35 games. She compiled an 18-17 record, 3.27 ERA and tossed a perfect game in the season-finale versus Loyola. Timmons was a four-year letterwinner for Davenport Assumption High School where she helped her team win the 2017 Iowa Class 3A State title while going 25-0 with a 0.43 ERA and 321 strikeouts.
 
Rounding out the returners are redshirt senior Ashlie Chambers (Ankeny Iowa), seniors Tasha Alexander (Eddyville, Iowa) and Kelsey Wright (Olathe, Kan.), juniors Melissa Schlotzhauer (Pilot Grove, Mo.), Kennedy Frank (Chesterfield, Mo.), Taryn Pena (Columbia, Mo.) and Gabbie Jonas (Omaha, Neb.) and sophomores Sarah Maddox (Henderson, Nev.) and Abby Buie (Gardner, Kan.).
 
Chambers appeared in just 14 games in 2017 before being sidelined due to illness. She has played in 94 career games. Alexander suffered a broken nose at the start of the 2017 MVC season and missed eight games. Despite the injury, she played in 48 games, batted a career-high .292 and swiped a career-best 19 bases. Frank and Wright were named to the 2016 All-MVC First Team while Pena was tabbed to the All-MVC Second Team. Jonas was the Bulldogs' primary catcher after Chambers was sidelined in 2017. Schlotzhauer appeared in 32 games and stole six bases. Buie and Maddox had strong first seasons as Bulldogs. Buie played in 50 games, slugged two home runs and made 10 appearances in the circle after Newman's injury. Maddox started all 55 games at first base and led the team in home runs with nine and runs batted in with 34.
 
The experienced Drake roster is joined by a four-member freshman class. Laura Anderson, Macy Johnson (Winterset, Iowa) and Libby Ryan (Mount Vernon, Iowa (Boone, Iowa) and Timmons are set for their first seasons as Bulldogs. Anderson was a four-year letterwinner for Boone High School and capped her prep career by being named to the Iowa Class 4A All-State First Team. Johnson was a multi-sport standout at Winterset High School, including being named to the Des Moines Register Softball Elite First Team as a junior and senior. Ryan is another multi-sport standout who starred at Mount Vernon High School. Ryan, who was the 2017 Cedar Rapids Gazette High School Female Athlete of the Year, is the younger sister of former Drake softball four-year letterwinner, Sarah Ryan.  
 
Veteran assistant coaches Kasey Griffith and Tina DeAngelo return to Calvert's coaching staff in 2018. Griffith is in her fifth season with the program and DeAngelo, who was a star pitcher for the Bulldogs in the 1990s, is in her fourth season on the staff.
 
During the 2017 season, Drake defeated Green Bay, 11-3, after dropping a close 3-2 game against UMKC at the Kansas Jayhawk Invitational. The Bulldogs swept South Dakota State last season at the UNI Dome Tournament. This will be just the second all-time meeting with SEMO as the teams last played in 2003 in a contest won by the Bulldogs.
 
Following the UNI Dome Classic, the Bulldogs will travel to Starkville, Miss., for the February Freezer tournament hosted by Mississippi State, Feb. 16-18. Drake will play two games against the hosts, MSU, two games against Murray State and close the tournament versus South Alabama.