UMBC

BALTIMORE—UMBC head softball coach Joe French today announced the Retrievers’ 2008 schedule, which includes three teams that played in the 2007 NCAA Tournament, as well as numerous local rivals. The season begins Feb. 16-17 at the UNC-Greensboro Spartan Classic.

“We feel that this is our toughest schedule to date, as we are playing more teams that made postseason play in their conferences than ever before, and we’re still able to maintain our local rivalries,” French said. “We also have nice diversity in our schedule, as we are playing teams from other parts of the country which we don’t normally get a chance to play.”

The Spartan Classic is the first of five tournaments for the Retrievers. UMBC will face Central Michigan, Niagara, Cleveland State and the host Spartans during the two-day tournament. Two weeks later, the Retrievers will compete in the George Washington Colonial Classic (March 1-2) with Army, Canisius and host GW.

The Retrievers will host the Fourth Annual UMBC Dawg Pound Tournament (March 14-16) with Central Connecticut State, Brown, Canisius and Delaware State, as well as the Sixth Annual UMBC Spring Classic (March 20-22) with Niagara, Mount St. Mary’s, St. Francis (Pa.) and Howard. Sandwiched in between is the Maryland Terrapin Spring Break Invitational (March 14-16), where the Retrievers will compete against Lehigh, Valparaiso, St. Peter’s, Niagara and the host Terps.

Highlights of the schedule include regional doubleheaders at Maryland (Feb. 21), Towson (March 25) and Delaware (April 30), and at home against George Washington (Feb. 26), Howard (March 12) and Georgetown (April 1).

America East Conference play begins March 29-30 with a three-game series at 2007 league tournament qualifier Hartford. UMBC opens its conference home slate April 5-6 with a three-game series against three-time defending America East champion Albany. The Retrievers will also host Stony Brook (April 12-13), 2007 regular-season champ Boston University (April 19-20) and Binghamton (April 23).

UMBC wraps up the regular season with a three-game series at Maine (May 3-4). The four-team America East Championships are May 8-10 at the No. 1 seed.

The Retrievers finished second in the 2007 America East Conference standings with a 13-8 league record and advanced to the championship game before falling to Albany. UMBC finished the season 32-18 overall.