SPRINGFIELD, IL --- The Prairie Stars will begin their season with six games in three days at the UAM Quad - State Classic in Bentonville, Arkansas. The Prairie Stars are looking to improve on their 2015 season, in which they finished 32-22 and finished 7^th in the GLVC, which was their second best record in he history of the program.

UAM QUAD - STATE CLASSIC
The season will open on Friday at 1:00 pm as they take on the University of Central Missouri before battling Missouri Southern at 3:00. Saturday will feature match-ups with Southwest Baptist and Upper Iowa University before the tournament is closed out on Sunday with Northwest Missouri and Nebraska Kearney. This is nearly the same field as last year when the Prairie Stars traveled to this tournament, where they put up a 3-1 mark, as the final two games were cancelled.

• 2/12 - 1pm - University of Central Missouri
• 2/12 - 3 pm - Missouri Southern
• 2/13 - 11 am - Southwest Baptist
• 2/13 - 5 pm - Upper Iowa
• 2/14 - 9 am - Northwest Missouri
• 2/14 - 11 am - Nebraska Kearney

DIAMOND 9 @ ESPN WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS
The following weekend, the Prairie Stars will head even further south and play at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in a three day, five game affair. This is the first time that the Prairie Stars will compete at Disney and will be the second of three tournaments they play before starting their conference schedule. The Prairie Stars schedule includes four teams from three different states: Florida, Georgia, and New York.

• 2/19 - 12:15 pm - North Georgia
• 2/20 - 12:15 pm - Queens
• 2/20 - 2:30 pm - Rollins
• 2/21 - 9 am - Dominican College
• 2/21 - 11:15 pm am - Dominican College

LEWIS FLYERS DOME INVITATIONAL
The final tournament of the season will be played in Rosemont, Illinois at the Lewis Dome Invite. UIS will face off against five different teams over a three day span in an indoor tournament. The Prairie Stars went 3-2 last season beating two of the teams they will face off against this season as well, including #15 Wayne State.

• 2/26 - 6 pm - Wayne State
• 2/26 - 8 pm - Grand Valley State
• 2/27 - 11 am - Findlay
• 2/27 - 3:30 pm - Upper Iowa
• 2/28 - 9 am - Walsh

This season, the Prairie Stars return 12 players from last year's team including three of their top hitters in Ashli King,Brittany Miller, andRachel Goff. King, who played in 52 of the 54 games last season, finished the season with a .350 average and a slugging percentage of .600 as she totaled 11 doubles and team leading eight home runs. She led the team in eight offensive categories including runs batted in, on-base percentage, and walks.

Miller was one of two players to play and start in all 54 games last season, ending the year with the second highest batting average at a .279 clip. With 41 hits, 12 went for extra bases as four left the park and eight went for doubles. Her 24 runs batted in were second only to King and Miller made just one error on the defensive side. In addition to her power, Miller was walked 20 times and hit an additional 23 times, which was more than double then next player in the GLVC.

In the circle, the Prairie Stars returnRachel Goffand Alex Smith, who combined for a 12-12 record in 197.2 innings. Smith, who turned in a 3.42 earned run average over 180 innings, surrendered just 171 hits and struck out 141 batters over the course of her junior season.

UIS will not open their home portion of the schedule until March 19^th in a conference double-header against Maryville. These will be their 22^nd and 23^rd games of the year.