The ISU softball team is heading into their last week of non-conference games before battling Texas, the No. 1 team in the Big 12 Conference.

The Cyclones will start off the week competing against teams such as New Mexico, Connecticut and Minnesota in the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Tournament in Corpus Christi, Texas, March 14-16.

“This is a really good tournament for us to play in,” head coach Ruth Crowe said, “because all five teams are decent.”

From there the team will battle Texas-San Antonio on Tuesday in San Antonio and Southwest Texas in San Marcos the following day.

“This is an important week because at the end is the beginning of the conference schedule,” Crowe said. The Cyclones will battle Texas in two games for their first conference matches of the 2003 season. The games are scheduled for March 22 and 23.

Texas is the No. 1 team in the conference and has only two losses under their belt so far. “This is not always the type of team you want to play for your first game,” Crowe said, “but we will have to play them at some point.”

The team is planning to use this last week as the final process in the team’s creation, she said. “We need to work on hitting, which has been slowly coming around, and more offensive production,” Crowe said.

Crowe and the team are also looking for the week to give them momentum into the Big 12 Conference, playing time outside and the return of senior Molly McNertney.

“This week we are excited to get both playing time and practice time on an outside diamond,” Crowe said. “Not too many types of sports have to practice in an environment in which you don’t play in,” she said, “and at some point it does start to hurt the team, especially defensively.”

Certain things such as how the ball bounces on the floor of Lied Recreation Center compared to a diamond are among the challenges the team has to adjust to, Crowe added.