Cardinals Release 2019 Softball Schedule

University of Louisville softball coach Holly Aprile has announced the 2019 schedule which includes a total of 17 games against teams that qualified for the 2018 NCAA Tournament – including national champion Florida State. The Cardinals, who are entering their 20^th year of competition, will also face six opponents that finished among the top 25 in the final ESPN.com/USA Softball and USA Today/NFCA polls. In all, Louisville will play 19 games at Ulmer Stadium, and host the Cardinal Classic (March 1-3).

In two decades of softball UofL has compiled a 718-371 (.659) record with six conference championships, 13 NCAA regional appearances and four regional finals.

The Cards will open the season Feb. 8-10 at Cal State Fullerton's Titan Classic where they will take on Idaho State, Fullerton, Buffalo, No. 24/RV Northwestern and Utah State. The following weekend, Louisville will travel back across the country for a trip to Chapel Hill, N.C. to compete in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge against 2018 NCAA tournament qualifiers Northwestern and No. 21/22 Michigan.

Louisville will wrap up the month of February in Knoxville, Tenn., for the Tennessee Classic which features Kansas, Bradley and Virginia as well as host No. 10/10 Tennessee Volunteers who are coming off of a Super Regional appearance last season.

In their home-opening weekend, March 1-3, the Cards will welcome 2018 NCAA tournament participant Missouri, along with Indiana State and IUPUI to Ulmer Stadium for the Cardinal Classic. Louisville will complete a six-game home stand with a midweek matchup against Lipscomb.

The Cardinals will once again hit the road for their final non-conference weekend, this time heading to Auburn, Ala., for the War Eagle Challenge where they will face Mercer, Radford and Michigan State as well as No. 17/20 Auburn which is coming off of an NCAA tournament appearance last season.

As the season nears the midpoint, UofL will return to Ulmer Stadium for a five-game home stand starting with a midweek doubleheader against Morehead State and culminating with its ACC-opening series against Syracuse.

Louisville will play seven of its next eight games on the road, continuing conference play with a trip to South Bend, Ind., to face 2018 NCAA tournament qualifier Notre Dame in a three-game set. A midweek home tilt against Indiana precedes a second straight ACC road weekend, this time at Virginia Tech.

The month of April will start with a midweek game at Western Kentucky, but the Cards will finally return home to take on defending national champion, top-ranked Florida State in a three-game weekend series at Ulmer Stadium.

The Cardinals will travel to Marshall for another midweek contest followed by a three-game ACC series at Boston College.

Louisville will close out the home season with seven games at Ulmer Stadium, starting with its final midweek game of the year, a matchup against in-state rival No. 15/15 Kentucky, which advanced to a Super Regional in 2018. The weekend ahead brings ACC foe Georgia Tech to Ulmer Stadium for a three-game series and the Cards will celebrate senior weekend April 26-28 against North Carolina.

While the first weekend of May brings many visitors to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby, the Cardinals will once again hit the road for their regular season finale – a three-game ACC series at NC State.

The 2019 ACC Championship will take place May 8-11 at Florida State's JoAnn Graf Field in Tallahassee, Fla.

Louisville Softball Notes
• Head coach Holly Aprile is in her first season at the helm. She is the second head coach in program history following the retirement of Sandy Pearsall. Prior to coming to Louisville, Aprile, the 2018 ACC Coach of the Year spent 10 seasons as the head coach at Pittsburgh and led the Panthers to the 2018 ACC Coastal Division title.
• The 2019 season marks UofL's 20^th year of softball. Since its inaugural season (2000), Louisville has registered a 718-371 (.659) record with six conference championships in three different leagues (American Athletic Conference, BIG EAST and Conference USA), 13 NCAA regional appearances and four regional finals.
• Additionally, the program has produced eight NFCA All-America selections and 101 all-conference team members (27 All-Conference USA/54 BIG EAST, five American Athletic Conference, 14 Atlantic Coast Conference).
• The longest home stand of the 2019 season for Louisville will be seven games from April 17 (vs. Kentucky) through April 28 (vs. North Carolina).
• The Cardinals will play their first 19 games on the road with tournaments at Cal State Fullerton (Titan Classic, Feb. 8-10), Chapel Hill, N.C. (ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Feb. 15-17) and Knoxville, Tenn., (Tennessee Classic, Feb. 22-24).
• Overall, the Cardinals will face nine different programs (17 games total) in 2019 that advanced to the 2018 NCAA tournament (Cal State Fullerton, Northwestern, Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri, Auburn, Notre Dame, Kentucky and national champion Florida State).
• Admission is free to all games at Ulmer Stadium with the exception of the April 17 game against Kentucky.

Fans can follow Louisville Softball on Twitter (@UofLsoftball) at https://twitter.com/UofLSoftball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/LouisvilleSoftball

University of Louisville Athletics

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