PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers softball team has released its 2022 schedule featuring six nonconference tournaments, including home tournament dates at the Rutgers Softball Complex in March, and 23 Big Ten contests.
The 2022 slate features nine squads that reached last year's tournament. Among the NCAA Tournament teams facing the Scarlet Knights this year will be Arizona State, Arkansas, BYU, George Washington, Liberty, Notre Dame and Washington, as well as the Big Ten's Michigan and Minnesota.
"We are very excited about this upcoming year and are looking forward to getting out onto the field and competing," said head coach
Kristen Butler, who enters her fourth season "On The Banks. "Between the nonconference schedule and the Big Ten Conference dates, we will play some of the top teams in the country."
"As a team, we have a lot of talent returning," continued Butler. "Our staff has also brought in new players that will be key contributors to our success as well. Our team had a great fall and worked extremely hard to prepare for the upcoming year. Overall, we saw our team grow tremendously and we are excited to see our preparation put to work against this schedule."
- The season gets underway at the Puerto Vallarta Challenge in Mexico on Feb. 10-12. The Scarlet Knights will be making its second appearance at the challenge having also played in the tournament in 2015 and will take on Memphis, Arkansas, Lamar and Washington.
- The following weekend on Feb. 18-20 Rutgers will travel to the Pirate Clash to take the field against host ECU, Wagner and Colgate in Greenville, North Carolina.
- RU returns to Leesburg, Florida on Feb. 25-27 for The Spring Games, the site where the Scarlet Knights opened last year's Big Ten schedule. At the Spring Games the Scarlet Knights will meet up with Siena, Princeton, Florida Gulf Coast, North Florida and Cornell.
- The month of March opens up with the Liberty Invitational in Lynchburg, Virginia. The host Flames will also welcome Notre Dame, Lehigh and George Washington the weekend of Mar. 3-6.
- Rutgers will then makes its way out west to Tempe, Arizona for the Sun Devil Classic competing against host Arizona State along with BYU, Grand Canyon, New Mexico State and UMKC on Mar. 11-13.
- Nonconference tournament action comes to a close on Mar. 17-20 with the Scarlet Knights hosting its own tournament with local ties. On the tournament slate at the Rutgers Softball Complex includes Fairfield, UMES, St. Peter's, Holy Cross and Drexel.
- The Scarlet Knights also have three mid-week nonconference home contests on the docket with Monmouth on Mar. 29, Seton Hall on Apr. 12 and Drexel on April 26.
- Rutgers will gear up for eight conference opponents on this year's schedule with four home series and four series on the road.
- The Big Ten schedule gets underway at home against Minnesota on Mar. 25-29. Other Big Ten opponents coming to the Rutgers Softball Complex this spring are Illinois on Apr. 15-17, Penn State on Apr. 22-24 and Michigan State on May 6-8.
- Road conference tilts include Nebraska on Apr. 1-3, Indiana on Apr. 8-10, a doubleheader with Maryland on Apr. 19 and Purdue on Apr. 29 - May 1.
- Michigan State will serve as host of this year's Big Ten Softball Tournament on May 11-14.
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