{"id":76366,"date":"2016-12-26T00:43:15","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T05:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=76366"},"modified":"2016-12-25T15:48:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-25T20:48:00","slug":"colgate-softball-unveils-2017-slate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=76366","title":{"rendered":"Colgate softball unveils 2017 slate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ColgateRaiders\"<\/a>Raiders to Face 12 Teams That Won 30-Plus Games a Season Ago<\/strong><\/p>\n

2017 Colgate Softball Schedule<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

With the season opener less than two months away, Colgate softball head coach Melissa Finley has announced the Raiders\u2019 2017 schedule. The challenging schedule features contests against five teams that made NCAA Tournament appearances a season ago and games against 12 squads that won 30-plus games in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our pre-Patriot League schedule is well-balanced this year,\u201d said Finley. \u201cWe will face some tough competition, but it’s not anything that this team can’t handle.\u00a0 We are tough competitors and we are going to stay focused on playing our best and learning as much as we can during the pre-league portion of play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raiders open the 2017 campaign with a four-game trip to the USC Upstate\/Furman Classic Feb. 17-18<\/span>. Colgate will face Georgetown in the first game of the season before taking on a trio of teams that finished 2016 with at least 33 wins in Furman, Towson and USC Upstate.<\/p>\n

Colgate will take part in the Stetson Tournament the following weekend, Feb. 24-25<\/span>. The tournament will provide another tough test as the Raiders face a pair of NCAA Tournament competitors in Ole Miss and USF, as well as host Stetson.<\/p>\n

The Raiders will return to Stetson March 11-12<\/span> to face Manhattan, North Dakota State and Columbia. That tournament will kick off Colgate\u2019s 12-game Spring Break trip to Florida. Colgate will take on Manhattan, Yale, Monmouth, North Florida, Florida A&M, Fairfield and Chattanooga while in Clearwater, Fla.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted us to be challenged in our pre-league competition because the Patriot League is extremely competitive,\u201d said Finley.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to feel pressure and be in close games as much as possible early on so that we know what to expect when faced with it against our league opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colgate\u2019s Spring Break trip to the Sunshine State will serve as the Raiders\u2019 final tune-up before league play begins on March 25<\/span> at Army West Point.\u00a0 Patriot League play will once again consist of three game series with doubleheaders on Saturdays followed by a single game on Sundays.<\/p>\n

Following a midweek doubleheader at in-state foe Binghamton March 28<\/span>, the Raiders will also be on the road for their second league series of the season at Bucknell\u00a0April 1-2<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Colgate makes its home debut at Eaton Street Field April 15 when the Raiders welcome Lafayette. Colgate will travel to Cornell for a Tuesday<\/span> twinbill April 18<\/span> before returning home to host Holy Cross in a league series April 22-23<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The Raiders remain home to host Syracuse April 26<\/span> before traveling to defending Patriot League Champion Boston University April 29 and 30.<\/p>\n

Colgate closes out the regular-season with a three-game set against defending regular-season champion Lehigh at Eaton Street Field May 6 and 7.<\/p>\n

The Patriot League Tournament will once again take place on the home field of the top seed, with games slated for May 11 through 13<\/span>. The winner of the tournament earns the league\u2019s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past few years the league has become even more competitive and the representatives from our conference have done very well at NCAA Regionals,\u201d said Finley. \u00a0\u201cI expect that to continue this season.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this team can stay committed and healthy we will give ourselves the best chance for success,\u201d continued Finley. \u201cThis team has been working well together this off season and if they can find a way to put it all together and play with confidence in the spring, we will have every opportunity to make a championship run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raiders to Face 12 Teams That Won 30-Plus Games a Season Ago 2017 Colgate Softball Schedule With the season opener less than two months away, Colgate softball head coach Melissa Finley has announced the Raiders\u2019 2017 schedule. The challenging schedule features contests against five teams that made NCAA Tournament appearances a season ago and games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-jRI","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/ColgateRaiders.jpg?fit=1365%2C1024&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}