Softball Heads to Orlando for UCF Knights Classic

Friday, February 14

Orlando, FLA.

4:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

Penn State

Photo by: Jeff Romance

2/13/2020 1:29:00 PM | Softball

FAU at UCF Knights Classic
Tournament Details	Feb. 14-16, 2020 \| UCF Softball Complex \| Orlando, Fla.
Game Coverage	Live Stats: Game 1 \| Game 2 \| Game 3 \| Game 4 \| Game 5 Live Stream: Game 5 Only Twitter: @fauowlssoftball Instagram: @Owls_softball
Florida Atlantic Links	Notes \| News \| Roster \| Schedule
Penn State Links	Notes \| News \| Roster \| Schedule
Villanova Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule
Iowa State Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule
UCF Links	Notes \| News \| Roster \| Schedule

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University softball team will embark its first tournament away from home at the UCF Knights Classic. FAU will square off against Penn State, Villanova, Iowa State and UCF.

About the Owls

The Owls are coming off the FAU First Pitch Classic having started out the 2020 season at 1-3
After one week of play, Myah Murray leads the Owls with a .333 batting average, while Fayth Davis, Jolie Duffner and Kaitlyn Burke follow, each batting .300. In the circle, Abigail Morgan leads the way with a 3.00 ERA and four strikeouts
The softball program is celebrating its 26th season, all under direction of head coach Joan Joyce, who is seeking her 1,000th career win this year
FAU was projected to finish eighth in the conference, as chosen by the league's head coaches. North Texas, co-regular season champions, was picked to finish at the top of the conference with nine first place votes
Davis (OF) was picked to the C-USA Preseason Team after finishing the year batting .389 (.400 C-USA), which was third best in the conference and best among outfielders in the league. She also tallied 15 doubles and 2 home runs in her redshirt sophomore campaign
FAU is looking to improve upon its 20-30 (7-17 C-USA) finish in 2019. The Owls missed the conference tournament for the first time
The team welcomes 12 newcomers, as well as brings back 11 players and four everyday starters

FAU Game Schedule

Day	Time	Opponent	Live Stats	Video
Friday, Feb. 14	4:30 p.m.	Penn State	Stats	N/A
Saturday, Feb. 15	9 a.m.	Villanova	Stats	N/A
	11 a.m.	Penn State	Stats	N/A
Sunday, Feb. 16	11:30 a.m.	Iowa State	Stats	N/A
	1:30 p.m.	UCF	Stats	Video

Game Notes

UCF Knights Classic

Eyeing the Competition

Penn State (Friday at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m.)
All-time series: 6-5, FAU leads

The Owls will play the Nittany Lions twice over the weekend, marking the 12th and 13th meetings between the two squads
The first game between the two teams took place on March 2, 1996 and resulted in a 5-4 loss
FAU has won the past four games to take a 6-5 lead in the series
The last time out, FAU won 4-2 at the FAU Kickoff Classic in 2016

About the Nittany Lions

The Nittany Lions have started out the year 3-2 with their most recent loss coming against Cal 3-1 at the Felsburg Invitational at FIU
Penn State is coming off a 24-32 season and lost to Indiana 4-2 at the Big 10 Tournament
Kaitlyn Morrison leads the Nittany Lions with a .438 batting average, while Kennedy Legg follows, batting .385 with five RBI
Bailey Parshall has seen the most time in the circle, pitching 15.1 innings with a 2.28 ERA. The pitching staff has allowed seven earned runs thus far

Villanova (Saturday at 9 a.m.)
All-time series: 3-0, FAU leads

The Owls will square off against the Wildcats for the fourth time
FAU has outscored Villanova 11-1 in the three games
The first time these teams met was on March 2, 1998, which resulted in a 7-1 win for FAU. The Owls also claimed a 3-0 win in their last meeting at the Eller Media Stadium Classic on March 1, 2014

About the Wildcats

The Wildcats went 3-2 at the Jacksonville Tournament. Villanova's last loss came against Jacksonville, 5-1 on Sunday
Last season, the team finished 29-24 with its season ending in a 11-10 loss against DePaul in the Big East Championship game
Becky Ducar leads the way with a .667 batting average, while Paige Rauch follows at .636 with three home runs. Rauch also leads the way in the circle with a 3-0 record and a 1.31 ERA

Iowa State (Sunday at 11:30 a.m.)
All-time series: 5-1, FAU leads

Sunday will mark the seventh meeting between the two teams
The Owls lost the first game of the series 5-3 in 1997, but have proceeded to win the last five straight, including a most recent 6-0 shutout victory at the Eller Media Stadium Classic in 2013

About the Cyclones

The Cyclones have started the year 4-1, winning the last four games at the Paradise Classic hosted by Hawaii. Iowa State's most recent victory was against Memphis in a 4-2 decision
Iowa State rounded out 2019 with a 37-25 record and were unable to play the third-place game at the Big12 Tournament due to cancellation after losing to Oklahoma State, 17-2. The Cyclones played at the National Invitational Softball Championship, with its season ending in a 4-3 loss to UT Arlington
The Cyclones are led by Hannah Carter who bats .538 and Ellie Spelhaug in the circle, who posts a 0.55 ERA

UCF (Sunday at 1:30 p.m.)
All-time series: 15-11, FAU leads

The Owls and Knights have played almost every year since 2002
Sunday will mark the 27th meeting between the two teams
The last time these teams faced off was in 2018, which resulted in a 2-1 loss in Orlando

About the Knights

The Knights hosted the Black and Gold Tournament where they started out the year 5-1. UCF faced No. 1 Washington in a Wednesday night game, but fell to the Huskies, 12-3
UCF finished last season 34-21 and dropped their AAC Quarterfinal matchup against Wichita State, 2-1
Justene Molina leads the Knights with a .600 batting average. Alea White has pitched the most thus far, with 19.0 innings spent in the circle. White is 3-0 and holds a 1.47 ERA

FAU First Pitch Classic Recap

The Owls went 1-3 on opening weekend
FAU dropped its first game against Wisconsin, 5-1. Ashleigh Jennings doubled in the third inning, as the Owls trailed 3-1, but were unable to catch up with the Badgers who scored two more insurance runs in the sixth
The Owls' game against Indiana State was cancelled
FAU beat Northern Illinois, 4-3. Abigail Morgan pitched a complete game for the win, while Fayth Davis, Kaitlyn Burke, Jolie Duffner and Ashleigh Jennings came up with an RBI in the victory
The Owls played Purdue twice and dropped both games. In the first matchup, the Owls fell 14-3 in five innings and lost the second game, 9-0

First Pitch Classic Highlights

Up Next

The Owls will be back home next weekend to host the 2020 FAU Strikeout Cancer Tournament from Feb. 21-23. To purchase tickets, visit the Ticketmaster page or call 1-866-FAU-OWLS.

Follow the Owls

For live updates during all of the Owls' games and for other FAU softball news, follow along on Twitter (@fauowlssoftball), Instagram (@Owls_softball) and Facebook.