This Week
The Fighting Hawks head to sunny Florida for five games this weekend, March 22-13. UND takes on Central Michigan and Bowling Green on Friday, then plays against U-Mass Lowell and Army on Saturday before finishing the weekend against Fairfield on Sunday.

Last Time Out
North Dakota picked up two wins at the Georgia Southern Eagle Classic, taking down Eastern Kentucky in the first game of the weekend, 2-0, before finishing competition with the program's first win over Harvard, 3-1, on Sunday. The Fighting Hawks suffered three losses over the weekend, dropping two contests to host Georgia Southern and one to Eastern Kentucky as the Colonels forced the weekend split with UND.

Redshirt sophomore pitcher Kaylin VanDomelen went 2-1 over the weekend, throwing a total of 20 innings and striking out 22 batters. She earned her third win of the season and second career shutout in the 2-0 win over Eastern Kentucky. She then threw a career-high 12 strikeouts against Harvard, while only conceding three hits to the Crimson.

Shelby Hard led the UND batsmen, going 7-for-17 (.412) over the weekend. She hit one double and two home runs over the course of the five games; she now has four home runs on the season. Hard is also in the midst of a seven-game hitting streak, in which she has totaled 11 hits.

Team Notes
Nicole Babrowski leads the Big Sky and is ranked 20th in the nation with an on-base percentage of .587. However, she leads the NCAA with 24 walks on the season, averaging 1.33 per game.

Redshirt sophomore pitcher Kaylin VanDomelen leads the Big Sky with 49 strikeouts on the season.

The wins against Iowa State (Feb. 14) and Virginia (Feb. 20) were the first in program history against a team from the Big 12 and the ACC, respectively. They are also just the third and fourth wins in program history against teams from the Power-Five conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC). The other two wins were against Wisconsin (March 25, 2009) and Ohio State (March 4, 2011).

The UND softball team returns 12 letterwinners and welcomes nine new faces to the squad for 2016, which includes eight freshman and one sophomore transfer.

North Dakota returns two players that were named All-Big Sky Conference honorable mention at the end of the 2015 season: third basesman Shelby Hard and outfielder Nicole Babrowski.

Last season, sophomore Shelby Hard led the Fighting Hawks in batting average (.333), runs (30), hits (53), homers (15) and RBI's (37). Hard's 15 home runs  last year set a program single-season record.

Senior Nicole Babrowski returns as North Dakota's lead-off hitter, she held a .299 average last season, recording 44 hits in 147 at bats.

UND also returns senior first baseman Emily Bell, who was named All-Big Sky Honorable Mention in 2014. Bell held a .261 average last season and was second on the team in both home runs (9) and RBI's (36).