Second-year head softball coach Amy Tudor announced the Lady Toppers’ 2015 schedule on Thursday, highlighted by 26 home games, a rigorous non-conference schedule, and bouts against five teams that finished in the top 25 RPI last season.

Michigan, Florida State, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Lipscomb, Kentucky and Louisville top the list of teams WKU will face that went to the NCAA postseason in 2014. Of those squads, Michigan, Florida State, Nebraska, Tennessee and Kentucky went on to Super Regionals.  

Florida State and Kentucky made it to the Women’s College World Series.

“This is definitely going to be a tough schedule,” Tudor said in a press release. “We have eight seniors that will lead us to make this class one of our strongest classes to come through here. When making the schedule, I felt like we needed to play tough teams and tough competition to get us ready for our first season in Conference USA and hopefully build for the NCAA Regionals and beyond.”

The Lady Toppers will face Buffalo in Troy and Alabama on Feb. 6 to kick off the season.

The following weekend WKU will travel to Tallahassee to compete in Florida State’s Unconquered Invitational. The Lady Toppers will face the Seminoles along with Michigan, Nebraska and Georgia Tech.

The 2015 schedule will also feature back-to-back tournaments hosted by the softball program.

The Hilltopper Spring Fling on February 20-22 will feature Saint Louis, Eastern Illinois, Ohio and IUPUI; and the Hilltopper classic on Feb. 27-March 1, will feature Bowling Green State, Indiana State, Cleveland State, Butler and Northern Kentucky.

Conference USA action begins March 7 with Louisiana Tech coming to Bowling Green.

The Lady Toppers also host Florida Atlantic on April 3-4, Southern Miss on April 11-12, and Charlotte April 25-26.

WKU’s road conference schedule features Marshall on March 13-14, North Texas on March 28-29, FIU on April 18-19, and Middle Tennessee on May 2-3.

The C-USA Tournament takes place May 7-9 in Miami, Florida.

“We have three SEC teams, two Big Ten teams, two ACC teams and an AAC team—it doesn’t get much better than that in my opinion,” said Tudor in a press release of the non-conference slate. “I feel that the girls will be gearing up and ready to go for that challenge because I feel that this season will be a challenge. Playing all of these opponents on the road will hopefully help us in Conference USA, as our goal is to win the C-USA championship. I’m looking forward to it, though. I feel like it is brutal, but challenging, and that is why you do it.”