If you get homesick easily, you might think twice before playing NCAA Division I softball in North Dakota. Fortunately, the Bison women are up to the challenge. Last season, the Bison were on the road until the last six games of the regular season. One of those games was cancelled due to rain. The team originally had more home games on the calendar, but they were rescheduled to be away games due to the historic 2009 flood, which threatened to turn Ellig Sports Complex into a catfish nest. Fortunately, the home field remained dry and the Bison went on to qualify for the NCAA tournament in their first year of Division I eligibility. They stunned No. 9/10-ranked University of Oklahoma Sooners and won two more against the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane to claim the regional title.

This season, the Bison will once again play the majority of their games on the road, including the first 35. But it’s not all bad: most of the road games during February and March will be played in warm, sunny places like Arizona, Florida, California, Texas and Louisiana. Even Ft. Collins, Colo., and Indianapolis, Ind., have average high temperatures of 50 degrees during March. “We’re excited for the warm weather,” said Darren Mueller, head coach for women’s softball. “We probably feel more comfortable on the road than we do at home, because that’s where we spend most of our time. We’re not as familiar playing home. It’s a routine that we follow.”

The Bison will have to get used to playing at home a little more this season, however. The women are scheduled to play 14 of their last 20 regular season games at home beginning April 3. Of the six away games during that final run, three of them will be played in May against South Dakota State University in Brookings, S.D. If the Bison can repeat last year’s run, they will play even more home games during the Summit League championship softball tournament, scheduled for May 14-15 in Fargo. “They’re excited,” Mueller said. “We’ve talked about it briefly, but we’ve still got to qualify and so we don’t want to focus on hosting, but make sure we do the right things.”

The “right things” include establishing solid pitching with a new battery. Senior catcher Maryssa McKenzie will have her hands full establishing communications with young sophomore pitcher Randi Parks, who appeared in only nine games last year, and also freshman Christina Rayner. Newcomer Whitney Johnson finished high school early in Lake Crystal, Minn., to enroll at NDSU to begin school and softball this spring. With a young roster, the Bison face a tough schedule. The women face four teams that advanced to the NCAA Division I tournament last year and their schedule includes 12 first-time opponents. “We have a lot of returners coming back that played in the conference and regional tournament last year,” Mueller said. “Hopefully, experience will carry our momentum forward.”