Feb. 12, 2003

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After opening the season 4-1 at the Auburn Invitational last weekend, the Missouri softball team heads to Stanford, Calif. this weekend to compete in the Stanford Invitational. Joining Mizzou and the host team, Stanford, at the tournament are Penn State and Kentucky. This is the second of four straight weekends the Tigers will be competing in tournaments. MU fell to Auburn in the championship game of the Auburn Invitational last weekend. Missouri opens play this week on Friday against Penn State at 11 a.m. (1 p.m. CST). Live Stats for all of games of the Stanford Invitational will be available on gostanford.oscn.com.

INSIDE PENN STATE
The Nittany Lions will open their 2003 season this weekend at the Stanford Invitational. Their first game will be against MU on Friday. PSU finished 34-26 last season and were fifth in the Big Ten Conference with a 10-9 record. Robin Petrini begins her seventh year as the Penn State head coach. She has compiled a 185-155 record with the Nittany Lions.

INSIDE KENTUCKY
Kentucky is 1-4 on the season heading into the Stanford Invitational. The Wildcats opened the season at the Florida International Tournament. They fell to Illinois State (8-1) and Georgia (5-0) on the opening day of the tournament. They defeated Florida International 3-2 on the second day of the tournament. The Wildcats then fell again to Georgia (5-2) and Illinois State (4-3). Beth Pruitt is in her seventh season at UK and has compiled a 141-230 record.

INSIDE STANFORD
The Cardinal is the host school for this weekend's tournament and enters ranked No. 14 in the country with a 5-2 record. Stanford opened the season by spliting two games with No. 21 Pacific. The Cardinal then went 4-1 at the ASU Fiesta Bowl Tournament last weekend, with the only loss coming to No. 10 Cal State-Fullerton.

TOURNEY TIME
Missouri opened up the 2003 season by going 4-1 at last week's Auburn Invitational. Four more tournaments are on MU's schedule this season. Following this weekend's tournament, MU will travel to the Troy Cox Invitational, the UCLA Tournament and the Houston Tournament. Last season, MU participated in six tournament, including hosting three. The Tigers were 16-16 in tournament play in 2002, including winning the Missouri Invitational.A LOOK BACK The Tigers opened the 2003 season by going 4-1 at last weekend's Auburn Invitational in Auburn, Ala. Mizzou opened the tournament with victories over Mercer (4-2) and Chattanooga (7-0). The Tigers then downed Auburn 8-3. In bracket play, the Tigers again shutout Chattanooga, defeating the Lady Mocs 4-0 setting up the championship game against Auburn. MU scored first, getting two runs in the fourth inning. Auburn scored one run in the sixth to cut the lead to one. The Tigers led 2-1 heading into the final inning. But with one out in the top of the seventh, Auburn's Ashley Griffen connected for a two-run homerun to give Auburn the 3-2 lead. MU was unable to score in the bottom of the seventh, giving Auburn the tournament championship. Rachael McGinnis, Erin Kalka, Samantha Fleeman, Heather Kunkel and Daisy Mettlach were all named to the All-Tournament team.

RUN AND SHOOT OFFENSE
Ty Singleton has promised that the Tigers will be an aggressive team this season and following the first weekend of play, he is following through on that promise. Last weekend the Tigers stole 12 bases on 19 attempts in five games. Their opponents, on the other hand, only attempted five steals all weekend. Daisy Mettlach leads MU in both steal attempts and stolen bases, stealing four bases in five attempts. Rachael McGinnis swiped two bases while, Heather Kunkel, Morgan LeCluyse, Sara Vassmer, Kendra Power, Joanne Loethen and Jeni Schellert each had one stolen base.

TIGERS DOMINATE AUBURN ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Five Tigers were named to the Auburn Invitational All-Tournament team, giving Mizzou the most team members of the four participating schools. Rachael McGinnis went 8-for-16 on the weekend with five of her eight hits going for extra bases. She was also 2-for-3 in stolen base attempts. Erin Kalka recorded two wins and one save in Missouri's five games. She took a no-hitter into the sixth inning in the Tigers' first game against Auburn. Samantha Fleeman was 2-0 in her first two starts for Missouri. She struck out 14 batters and only walked one in 14.0 innings of work. Fleeman only allowed one earned run in the two games. Heather Kunkel was 6-for-14 in the tournament including a homerun which not only cleared the fence in left field, but sailed over the scoreboard above the wall. Kunkel also had one double, one triple and seven RBI in Auburn. Daisy Mettlach was also 6-for-14 on the weekend and led MU with four stolen bases in five attempts. Among her six hits was a double against Auburn.

MAKING THE GRADE
The student-athletes at the University of Missouri have excelled not just on the field, but also off the field. This past fall semester the overall GPA for Missouri student-athletes was an all-time high 2.90. The softball team had a 2.85 GPA and had 10 players with a 3.0 GPA or higher. Mizzou also had six players make the Dean's List. The graduation rate among MU student-athletes is also at an all-time high of 72%, which is the best in the Big 12 Conference.

EXTRA, EXTRA
Mizzou recorded 34 hits in its first five games. Of those, 12 have gone for extra bases. Rachael McGinnis leads MU with five total extra base hits (four doubles and one triple). Heather Kunkel has three heading into this weekend, with one double, one triple and one homerun.

SINGLETON GUIDES MIZZOU
Ty Singleton was named the sixth head coach in Mizzou softball history last June. Singleton spent the last two season as the head coach at Northwestern State (La.) University, compiling a 75-45 record with the Demons. He is no stranger to the Big 12 Conference, after spending four season as an assistant coach at the University of Texas. Singleton brings a aggressive approach of softball to Mizzou. His teams have been known for being aggressive at the plate, on the bases and in the field. The first hire the Singleton made at MU was Tom Royder as the Tiger pitching coach. Royder was also an assistant for Singleton at Northwestern State. Karrie Rider completes the Mizzou staff. She was an assistant coach at Harvard last season and serves as the Tigers' fielding coach, as well as assisting in other areas.

SIZING UP THE COMPETITION
The strength of the Big 12 Conference along with the non-conference opponents of Mizzou, makes the 2003 Tiger schedule one of the toughest in the nation. Six of the Tigers' 2003 opponents are ranked in the USA Today/NFCA Preseason Top 25. Three of those teams are in the top 10 and three Big 12 teams are among the top 25. Missouri will face the top team in the country, UCLA later this month at the UCLA Tournament. The Tigers will also face No. 4 Nebraska, No. 8 Oklahoma, No 12 Texas, No. 14 Stanford and No. 24 Texas A&M this season. The Tigers begin the 2003 campaign with a four-tournament, 20-game road trip. The first home contest for MU will be on March 12, when Pittsburg State will take on the Tigers in a doubleheader. Following the set with PSU, Mizzou is back on the road for four games at the Houston Tournament. Big 12 Conference play begins on March 20 when rival Kansas visits University Field.

CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Two MU seniors are moving up the charts in the career record books at Mizzou. Sara Vassmer is currently seventh in career batting average at MU, with a .333 mark. Vassmer is also moving up the career stolen bases list at Mizzou. Vassmer has swiped 45 bases, placing her 12th all-time in Tiger softball history. Ingrid Werner is eighth in career strikeouts with 222 heading into the weekend. She is also in 10th place in innings pitched with 420.2 innings pitched prior to this weekend's tournament. Werner also has 10 career shutouts, placing her 10th all-time at Missouri. She is also 11th in both complete games (31) and wins (29).

WELCOME BACK...
Among those returning to the Tigers from last year's squad are the team leaders in nearly all major categories. Rachael McGinnis led MU in hits (67), batting average (.379), slugging percentage (.610), RBI (47), doubles (10), triples (5), homeruns (7), total bases (108) and walks (25). The leading base stealer for the Tigers last year was Sara Vassmer, who stole 20 bases in 31 attempts and returns in 2003. The top two pitchers for the 2002 Tigers are back this season. Erin Kalka led Mizzou in innings pitched (171.2), strikeouts (137), ERA (1.88), wins (14) and appearances (41). Ingrid Werner was the team leader in games started (31) and complete games (11).

...AND WELCOME ABOARD
Joining the Tiger veterans is a strong group of freshman. Several freshman are quickly becoming contributors for Mizzou. On the mound, Samantha Fleeman started twice in last weekend's Auburn Invitational, picking up two wins and giving up only one earned run in 14 innings pitched. She has struck out 14 batters and only walked one. Fleeman's battery mate has been another freshman, Morgan Kent. Kent started twice at catcher and threw out a Mercer runner attempting to steal. Joanne Loethen has started each of MU's five games at first base and recorded two hits and scored four runs for the Tigers at the Auburn Invitational. Kendra Power had three starts at second base in Auburn. She had one hit, scored one run and drove in two in those starts.

TIGERS SIGN SEVEN FOR 2003 RECRUITING CLASS
Tiger coach Ty Singleton announced his first recruiting class at Mizzou on Dec. 5. Seven high school standouts signed National Letters of Intent to play at Mizzou next season. Leanne Bowers (Arnold, Mo.) is a three-time all-state selection and a four-time all-conference team member and led the St. Louis area in home runs as a senior. Allison Kennewell (Eden Prairie, Minn.) was a team captain as a senior for Eden Prairie High, leading the team to the state championship. She was a three-year letterwinner and was an all-conference selection twice. Kerri Lamkin was the team MVP and was selected to the all-league first team and also captured all-district honors. She helped her team to the state semifinals in 1999 and 2000 and was named team captain as a senior. Kathy Masterson, from Cor Jesu Academy in St. Louis, is a three-time selection to the all-conference team and a three-time member of the all-district team. Micaela Minner, a two-time all-state selection was the District 9-3A co-offensive MVP as a sophomore and was the district offensive MVP her junior season. Erica Peterson is a senior at Coppell (Texas) High School. She led Coppell to the state championship as a sophomore, as hit .347 at the plate and had a 6-0 record and 0.45 ERA as a pitcher during the championship series. Sarah Stringer is a senior at nearby North Callaway High School. She hit .564 with 26 runs scored and 34 stolen bases during her senior season.

ON TAP
Next week, Missouri will travel to Las Cruces, N.Mex. to take part in the Troy Cox Invitational. The Tigers will face Colorado State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday. On Saturday, MU takes on Western Illinois and New Mexico State before facing IUPUI-Fort Wayne on Sunday.