The softball team will compete in its first tournament from Feb. 22-24 at the Allen Station Fields. Pitcher Lucy Crowder said there has been one team that has stood out to the team as a difficult opponent — Walnut Grove.

“[Walnut Grove is] gonna be good this year,” Crowder said. “I think they’re going to be the hardest one because they just switched over to 5A, and many players transferred over there, so they’re gonna be good.”

The team has been preparing for the upcoming tournament and district season as they hope to improve on last year’s season, when they finished fifth in the district.

“Some of the areas I’m focused on improving before the tournament would probably be our defense,” head coach Chelsea Herndon said. “Overall, our pitching and hitting [staff] is doing well. We scored 15 runs against Nimitz in our home opener, so I think making sure that we have a defense that will back up our pitcher and our offense is what we’re focusing on.”

Another aspect the team has been focusing on is teamwork and communication. Centerfield Alyssa Sneed said that has been a big thing that they have been practicing.

“Last year, we didn’t have good team chemistry and it took a toll on us,” Sneed said. “But this year, we have really good team chemistry. It’ll help us in the long run, whether we do well during games or not.”

The Lady Hawks won their first game 15–0 against Nimitz on Feb. 13.

“It went well,” Sneed said. “We mercy-ruled them. We ended the game pretty quickly. It was a really easy team for us, but I think we’re going to come across some good competition in the tournament.”

With so many different teams, the team expects to have difficult games, especially with teams from high schools such as Walnut Grove, Byron Nelson and Colleyville.

“This tournament will be our chance to show how good we are,” Crowder said. “With so many good teams, we are sure to have a difficult tournament. But that makes the wins more worthwhile.”