Of all the banners hanging on the fence at the Creighton Sport’s Complex softball field, only one hangs with the words “Women’s College World Series” on it.
This year’s softball team hopes to make that two.
The team returns many key players from last year’s team which made it to the NCAA Tournament. The 2009 Jays were picked to once again win the Missouri Valley Conference, as they did in both 2007 and 2008. While this adds a little bit of pressure for the Jays, senior catcher Laura Kratochvil is comfortable with it.
“The team manages the pressure well,” she said. “We have held this position before so we know what it takes to keep ourselves at the top throughout the conference. We know we deserve that top spot and we thrive on going out and showing everyone else the reason we were chosen as the favorite.”
It appears depth will not be an issue after only losing three seniors to graduation. All-American junior pitcher Tara Oltman feels this sets the team up to have a deep and talented line up.
“Every position is important so we need everybody to find their roles and to fill them to the best of their ability. We have a ton of depth this year so we will be strong at every spot,” said Oltman.
While this team has high aspirations for a very impressive season, things started a little different than expected at the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi tournament. The Jays won three of their five games in the tournament, however the team expected a little bit more according to junior outfielder and first baseman Michelle Graner.
“I think this last weekend everyone was pretty disappointed with the outcome of a couple games,” Graner said. “I don’t think anyone expected to lose, so losing two was quite a shock. I guess it just shows that we have to be mentally and physically ready for every game.”
Oltman agrees and hopes that last weekend’s games will help the Jays to play better in the future.
“I don’t think we played our best ball last weekend, and we found some things we need to improve upon, so we are just going to build upon what happened last week this weekend,” Oltman said.
While the team has struggled very early in the season, the Jays have worked hard, and Kratochvil feels they will still be able to accomplish their preseason goals.
“As a whole, this team has done well in working hard to be the best,” she said. “In the off-season, the team trained hard and everybody improved an aspect of their game in some way. This team has done really well in working to prepare ourselves for the season and prepare ourselves to reach our team goals.”
Oltman has been a scary face for opponents in the batter’s box to see in her two previous years as a Jay. Her dominance may play a very important role if this team wants to be playing with the final eight teams in Oklahoma City in this year’s women’s College World Series.
“Tara probably won’t say it, but she is going to be a very big role. We need her to be as dominating as she has been in the past,” Graner said.
Graner was right. Oltman would not list herself as a player who would have a great impact on this team’s success. However, she obviously feels comfortable with the talent surrounding her.
“Every position is important, so we need everybody to find their roles and to fill them to the best of their ability. We have a ton of depth this year so we will be strong at every spot,” Oltman said.