EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern Softball announced its complete 2023 schedule on Thursday, consisting of 49 regular season games, five non-conference tournaments, 23 Big Ten matchups, and 11 home games at Sharon J. Drysdale Field.
Returning a veteran group, the Wildcats’ schedule is competitive as ever. Northwestern will face 17 different teams that qualified for last season’s NCAA Tournament, including five teams that hosted an NCAA Regional, nine teams that finished ranked in the Top-25 and three other teams that participated in the 2022 Women’s College World Series.
In total, 15 of the Wildcats’ 26 non-conference games will be against teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The ‘Cats open the season with a trip to the NFCA Classic in Clearwater, Florida from Feb. 10-12. The following week, Northwestern will participate in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge with a pair of meetings against Clemson and Notre Dame.
One week later, Northwestern will make its return to the nation’s most prestigious non-conference tournament, the Mary Nutter Classic, in Cathedral City, California for the 17th time in program history. The ‘Cats will play five games at Mary Nutter this year, headlined by a meeting with UCLA on Feb. 25 in what marks a rematch from the 2022 Women’s College World Series.
The Wildcats round out their non-conference slate with a five-game stint at Louisville from March 3-5, followed by five games in Oklahoma City played at Hall of Fame Stadium, the site of the Women’s College World Series, which includes a matchup with the defending national champions Oklahoma.
Northwestern is coming off its sixth Women’s College World Series appearance in program history and third under Kate Drohan and Caryl Drohan, who earned their 700th career wins as head coach and associate head coach during the Evanston Regional, the fifth highest win total in Big Ten history.
In addition to punching their ticket to Oklahoma City, the Wildcats earned their highest seed in the NCAA Tournament in 15 years while hosting an NCAA Regional and won the outright Big Ten Championship in addition to earning…
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