GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The University of Providence softball team will  begin their season by jumping immediately into conference play over the weekend with a pair of doubleheaders against Eastern Oregon. The Argos will first take the field Friday at 2 and 4 p.m. local time and at noon and 2 p.m. on Saturday. 

The Argos will hope to start their season on the right path against the Mountaineers, who have ten games under their belt. Thankfully, the team has spent more time outside than any other offseason in Egan's nine years as the head softball coach. 

"I'm extremely excited," head coach Joey Egan said. "It's hard that we're not playing any non-conference games before we go into conference. But it's exciting how much we've gotten outside this year."

The Mountaineers have started off their season 0-10, but Egan has reminded her team that they lost three times to them last season.

"They're always a feisty team." Egan said. "Their record doesn't look great right now, but that's never a reason to overlook them and look past them. They are always one to be up for a fight. They've gotten ten games under their belt and we've got none, so that's immediately an advantage for them. We're definitely not going in looking past them."

The Argos are hoping to improve upon last season when they finished 8-29, with all eight wins coming during conference play. The team only lost two starters, and Egan is banking on the established chemistry and leadership of the upperclassmen to lead the team throughout the season.

"We've got some really good leadership on this team," Egan said. "We have five really strong leaders. In the past we've had a very limited amount of upperclassmen. But now with a lot of upperclassmen and a lot of strong leaders on our team, I think we're going to be in a really good place."

The Argos have a lot of goals for the season, but the most important one is responding to adversity. Egan has been preaching about the importance of moving on to the next play during the offseason.

"What I've been focusing with my team on is not worrying about the next game or the next week or playoffs," Egan said. "We're going to worry about every game, every inning, every pitch and how we recover from each and every play that doesn't go our way. We move forward every single day. Our goals are smaller this year so that we can build off of those and hopefully get us to the end goal that we want."

The Argos will test their response to adversity immediately. Due to poor field conditions at Eastern Oregon's home facility, the game will be moved to Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon. Because of this, the games won't be livestreamed. However the games will be played at the same time. 

"It's huge that we start the season off right," Egan said. "We've talked to them about setting the pace. Every day in practice we've been setting the pace for these first games. To start the season off worrying about the travel or the cold, that shouldn't be a factor because we travel every year. I'm expecting them to get sunburns during this road trip. We're going to bring extra sunscreen."

"They look ready," she said. "They're itching to go play. Our team dynamic always get funky when we go long times between playing. I'm just excited to get them out on the field and remember our purpose and why we're here and what we're doing."