The softball season starts on Feb. 6 in College Station at the Texas A&M Tournament. The team will play five games, the first of Head Coach Jo Koons’ career at ACU.

Koons took over the program after two straight losing seasons in a row and a 16-32 record last season. She enters the program with hopes of changing the culture and turning the program around.

“I think probably the biggest thing is just trying to just establish a culture and kind of live off of values. And so, our values for our program are accountability, communication, toughness and unconditional love. And just get the team to buy into those,” Koons said.

Key returning players from last season include Bubba Rote, redshirt junior right-handed pitcher from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Lina Russo, senior right-handed pitcher from Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, and Miranda Lista, senior infielder from Chino Hills, California.

Rote pitched one game last season and had an ERA of 5.25, and she also had a fielding percentage of .935. Russo went 6-14 as a starting pitcher last season and had an ERA of 4.29. Lista had a .921 fielding percentage along with a .146 batting average and 13 RBIs in 89 at-bats.

The team will face three Power 4 opponents in the upcoming tournament: Baylor, Purdue and Texas A&M.

“Baylor’s a great team. They graduated some and lost some, but they also gained a lot of good transfers and freshmen,” Koons said. “So, they’re going to run, so just preparing for the speed that they have and the versatility that they have.”

After this tournament the Wildcats will play in four more tournaments and a series against Seattle University before playing their first game in Poly-Wells field on March 14.

“We’ve talked about it since day one, and I feel like we’ve prepared for it just in the way we’ve practiced and you know, prepared our bodies and minds,” Koons said. “Of course, nothing’s going to prepare you for quite when you’re in it, but we’ll be all right.”