JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As it begins the quest for the Atlantic Sun Championship, the FGCU softball team will start conference play this weekend at North Florida. The Eagles will play a three-game series in Jacksonville with a doubleheader on Saturday, Mar. 14 and a single game on Sunday, Mar. 15. First pitch on both days is slated for 1 p.m.

THE GREEN AND BLUE
After earning a 3-0 win over SIU Edwardsville on Tuesday night, the Eagles currently stand at 15-13 on the season.

Junior Ashley Dobson (Wheatfield, Ind./Kankakee Valley HS) earned the complete-game victory, allowing five hits with two walks and five strikeouts.

Freshman Chandler Middlebrook (Auburndale, Fla./Auburndale HS) did the heavy lifting in the batter's box against the Cougars, going 2-for-3 with two RBI, with one of the hits being a two-run bomb to left center.

Kelsey Huff (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla./Dwyer HS) leads the team on the season with an average of .371 while swiping 17 bases. Kelsey Carpenter (Oviedo, Fla./Hagerty High School) has a team-high 18 RBI and 15 walks while adding a batting average of .329. Mackenzie McAvoy (Plant City, Fla./Plant City High School) leads the Eagles with 26 hits while boasting a .325 batting average. After her homer on Tuesday, Middlebrook has knocked in 13 RBI with three homeruns.

Dobson holds a team best 2.39 ERA in 55.2 innings. She has produced a record of 6-2 in 11 appearances to pace the pitching staff. Overall, the staff has four pitchers with over 20 innings pitched and has maintained a team ERA of 4.02.

Offensively, the team has held a combined average of .275 with 100 RBI and a total of 117 runs.

THE OSPREYS
UNF opens conference play against the Eagles after losing four of its last five, including a split doubleheader against Toledo on Tuesday in Jacksonville.  The team now sits at 16-10 and is currently 4-4 at home this season.

Under seventh-year head coach Marcie Hickey, UNF was selected to finish fifth in the preseason Atlantic Sun Coaches' Poll, a spot behind FGCU.  The team finished 26-23 last season and failed to make it to the postseason.

This season, junior slugger Stacy McClelland leads the Ospreys at the dish.  The Live Oak, Fla. native is batting .412 through 26 games and leads the team with eight homeruns and 25 runs batted in.

In the circle, senior Kayla Goff holds the best record for the Ospreys going 7-2, but classmate Kaylie Wallace holds the team's best ERA with a mark of 1.90.  UNF's team ERA is nearly a run and a half lower than its opponents.

UP NEXT
Following the conference series, the Eagles will return to Fort Myers for a midweek doubleheader with Towson University.  The doubleheader is slated to begin at 4 p.m. and will be a National Fast Pitch Coaches Association StriKeOut Cancer PINKOUT game. The Eagles are encouraging all fans to wear pink and will be accepting donations for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

For up-to-the minute information on the FGCU softball program, follow on Twitter @FGCU_Softball and Instagram at fgcusoftball and stay tuned at FGCUAthletics.com.

The founding father of FGCU softball, David Deiros is in his 13th season as head coach. Hired in 2001 to build the program from the dirt up, Deiros has since guided the Eagles to 11 seasons with a winning record, eight campaigns with 35+ wins and a win percentage of  .691 (504-224-3). The 2014 Eagles finished with a 33-26-1 and wins over SEC, Big 10, Big East, and ACC opponents.  FGCU finished their season with an RPI ranking in the top-100 for the 3rd consecutive season and the 5th time in their seven years at Division I. Deiros is a former head coach at the 1998 Florida State Runner-up Lely High School in Naples and is the founding head coach of the 1999 District Champion/2001 Regional Runner-up Gulf Coast High School in Naples.