GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The University of Providence softball team will head to Minot State for the Minot State Dome Tournament this weekend.

The Argos are coming off a disappointing opening weekend, where they went 1-3 against Eastern Oregon in Pendleton, Ore. The Argos, however, have responded with focus and determination this week in practice.

"This week in practice they seem like the jitters are out," head coach Joey Egan said. "They seem a lot more calm. They're starting to visualize our end goal rather than being overly hyped to play conference games. Just having a few games under our belt is huge."

The team hit .310 over the weekend, and Egan has had the team focusing on improving at the plate. The Argos had more runs, hits and RBIs than the Mountaineers, but struggled with dealing with the different pitches.

"They were very anxious at the plate and not adjusting," Egan said. "We've been working on mostly hitting. We want them to keep a calm and cool mentality on approaches to the batter's box."

The Argos will face some tough competition during the tournament. They'll open against the host team Minot State (6-6.), an NCAA Division II team, on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. They'll finish the weekend with a slew of NAIA opponents in Mayville State, Valley City State and Dickinson State.

"Minot will be tough," Egan said. "They're a very scrappy team. Even if you can get a lead on them, they will fight back. The other ones are NAIA opponents, so I hope we can get compete with them very well. I want to go into this weekend and get some experience. For this weekend, I want to learn about my team. I want to get to know them on the field better. I'm less worried about them and more worried about us."