The Chattanooga Lady Mocs softball team released its 57-game 2013 spring schedule Thursday, featuring four road-tournaments and the Frost Classic serving as the season's home opener.
Chattanooga opens the season Feb. 8 at the National Training Center Invitational Tournament in Clearwater, Fla. against Fordham. While in Florida, UTC will face Long Island, Southern Illinois, Virginia Tech and Fordham, once more.
UTC visit Auburn University Feb. 15-17 for the Tiger Invitational. While at Auburn, Chattanooga is scheduled to face Kansas, Indiana State, in-state rival Tennessee State and the hosting Tigers.
The Lady Mocs return to Chattanooga for the first time in 2013 to host the Frost Classic Feb. 22-24 at Frost Stadium. The 12-team tournament will pin Eastern Kentucky against UTC for the Lady Mocs first home game. Chattanooga will go on to host Lipscomb, Miami-Ohio, Boston College and Missouri State over the three-day span.
UTC travels to Mercer University March 1-3 for the Bear Classic, set to go toe-to-toe with Central Arkansas, Northern Kentucky and Mercer before being placed into a bracket to determine the Bear Classic champion.
The Lady Mocs will spend spring break in Clearwater, Fla. beginning March 8. Chattanooga competes in the three-day USF Under Armour Invitational with matchups against Toledo, Wagner, Villanova, Loyola Marymount and Temple. UTC will spend the next three days in Clearwater, as well, taking on Beach, Boston University and Quinnipiac University before packing up and leaving for Furman to open the Southern Conference schedule.
"We are going to see a lot of quality teams this season," Head Coach Frank Reed said. "Frost Stadium will see a lot of good teams this year, and there are a lot of new coaches in the Southern Conference. It will be interesting to see how everything plays out, especially how those teams with new coaches fare. I know they will be hungry for success, but we have to stay hungry and driven, as well."
Along with the SoCon regular season, out-of-conference matchups against Murray State, Georgia State, Tennessee Tech and UAB will be featured in this season's slate. Frost Stadium will host 20 Chattanooga matchups while the Lady Mocs will be on the road for 37 games.
The SoCon tournament is scheduled to begin May 8 in Greensboro, N.C., at UNCG Softball Stadium.