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INDIANAPOLIS – The 2012 edition of the IUPUI softball team opens its season on Friday, Feb. 10, when it heads to Monroe, La., to compete in the Louisiana-Monroe Mardi Gras Classic.

The season-opening tournament will be a five-game, three-day affair with the Jaguars taking on Southeast Missouri State, tournament host Louisiana-Monroe, Northwestern State and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

IUPUI and Southeast Missouri State meet on Friday, Feb. 10 at 3 p.m. ET, and the Jags will immediately follow that game with a tilt against Louisiana-Monroe at 5 p.m. ET. On Saturday, Feb. 11, IUPUI battles Northwestern State and SIU-Edwardsville at 6 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET, respectively, before closing the tournament with another meeting against the Cougars on Sunday, Feb. 12, at 10 a.m. ET.

“The team is eager to begin the 2012 campaign. We have been fortunate to be able to practice outside for the past week, which very rarely happens this time of year,” said head coach Maggie Calcaterra. “The players have seen a lot of balls defensively and offensively. The repetition on the field has been a positive that we are hoping to carry into the weekend.  This weekend and the following preseason tournaments will allow us to gauge where we are at and where our focus should be for our conference schedule.”

Each of IUPUI’s four opponents this weekend finished with 27 or more wins a season ago, which provides for a challenging opening weekend.

The Jaguars enter the 2012 season looking to improve upon their sixth-place finish in Summit League action a season ago. Of IUPUI’s 12 returners, eight are sophomores that gained valuable experience as freshmen.

Included among those sophomores are Nikki Thomas and Alicia Brewer. Thomas quickly etched her name in the school record books striking out a program-best 173 batters in just 142 innings, while accounting for seven of the team’s 15 wins as a true freshman last year.

Offensively, Brewer belted a team-best nine home runs and drove in 30 runs as the team’s primary shortstop in her rookie campaign.

IUPUI's four upperclassmen have been tested throughout their careers and the quartet of Leah Prewitt, Samantha Bumbaugh, Nicole Natter and Kelsey Rupert will try and lead the Jaguars to the conference tournament for the first time since the 2005 season.