The Golden Eagles are scheduled to play a 55-game schedule that includes 26 games at the Southern Miss Softball Complex. The Golden Eagles will play 19 games against 11 different teams that played in NCAA Regionals last season.

Southern Miss begins the 2016 campaign at the Sand Dollar Classic in Gulf Shores, Ala. on Feb. 12. The Golden Eagles host Alabama State in a doubleheader to open up the 2016 home campaign on Wednesday, Feb. 17.

The Golden Eagles went 18- 34 last season, but this season coach Wendy Hogue and the Golden Eagles look to finish well above .500. Last year’s youth and inexperience is this season’s strength along with added key players.

The addition of two former National Junior College Athletic Association Player of the Year award winners in Lauren Holifield and Tori Dew. Holifield and Dew led Jones County Junior College to a 41-6 record and a ranking no lower than No. 3 in the NJCAA poll.

Holifield as a sophomore at JCJC, had 78 hits and led the nation with 28 home runs, which led her to being selected as player of the year.

Dew, as a sophomore at JCJC, boasted a .474 batting average and 15 home runs.

Holifield and Dew were just two of just 16 NJCAA players named to the NJCAA All-Star team.

The two former junior college teammates will be joining another former teammate in catcher Bailey Stokes.

Stokes returns as the team leader in homers and sacrifice flies.