STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern head softball coach Kim Dean has announced the 2018 schedule for the Eagles. In her first season at the helm of the program, Dean and the Eagles will play in four tournaments, including hosting the 2018 Eagle Round Robin, and overall will have 17 home games at Eagle Field.

The 2018 season will commence on February 9-11 with the Eagle Round Robin. ETSU, Murray State, Radford and Austin Peay will join Georgia Southern for three days of action at Eagle Field. The season for Georgia Southern will begin on Friday, February 9th, with a 4:30 p.m. contest against Murray State.

Georgia Southern will then hit the road for three more tournaments on successive weekends. The Eagles will travel to Madeira Beach, Fla., for the Eastern Michigan Madeira Beach Spring Invitational on February 16-18. Georgia Southern will play Jacksonville State, Monmouth, UMKC and Abilene Christian during the weekend.

The Eagles will then travel to the University of Florida for the 2018 Lipton Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., on February 23-25. In addition to facing host and NCAA national finalist Florida, the Eagles will also face Illinois State, Iowa State and Maryland.

The final in-season tournament will be on March 2-4, at the Lipscomb Purple/Gold Challenge in Nashville, Tenn. Georgia Southern will take on host Lipscomb, Indiana State and ETSU.

"I'm looking forward to our pre-conference schedule," Head Coach Kim Dean said. "Ultimately, I wanted it to prepare us for the teams we are going to face in the Sun Belt Conference, and get us ready for the postseason."

A single game against Detroit on March 7th kicks off the next phase of the Eagles' schedule, with Sun Belt Conference play opening up on March 10-11 at Troy. Home Sun Belt series this year include South Alabama (March 17-18), UL Monroe (March 24-25), UT Arlington (April 14-15) and Appalachian State (April 28-29). 

Non-conference contests during that stretch include a weekend series at UCF (March 13-14) and single-game midweek dates at Georgia (March 21), South Carolina (April 5) and Jacksonville (April 18). The 2018 Sun Belt Conference Championships will be on May 9-12 in Lafayette, La.

"Our overall schedule is a very rigorous one, and the only way to get that experience of playing in the postseason is to play the caliber of teams we will see," Coach Dean said. "I believe we will be ready for the challenge."

Overall, the Eagles play 12 games against teams that advanced to the 2017 NCAA Softball Championships. Georgia Southern return three starters (Mekhia Freeman, Shelby Wilson and India Davis) and 13 players overall from last season's squad that went 24-29 overall and 14-14 in the Sun Belt. 

Nine newcomers, including two transfers from Armstrong State (Macy Coleman, Logan Harrell) and one from Kennesaw State (Jenna Kniss), join coach Dean and new assistant coaches Megen Conner and Tim Homan for the upcoming 2018 campaign.