In spite of an 0-7 start to their spring season at the UAA championships in Florida, the softball team is looking for positives in their season-opening struggles. The tournament marks the only time the Judges will face UAA opponents all season. Despite the slow start, the team has used the time down south to get acclimated to outdoor conditions after practicing indoors since January. "It's hard because all of these teams have already been playing outdoors and have already had lots of games coming into the UAA tournament," Marissa Rubin '07 said. "So they've already had time to work out all of their issues, whereas we haven't."

Though the Judges have dropped all of their games so far, the team has seen constant improvement since their first day of competition. Facing double-headers on most days, Brandeis has dropped games against Washington University in St. Louis, University of Rochester, Emory University and Case Western Reserve University.

In their most recent contests versus Emory University and the University of Rochester on Sunday, the Judges lost their first game of the day to Rochester 4-2 and then the second to Emory by a score of 13-2.

"We scored first [against Rochester], which is the toughest thing for us," Bri Smith '06 said. "[Versus Emory] we had one bad inning where we couldn't get the out we needed, but we were able to put a couple runs on the board and we weren't able to do that in the first game."

While the team may be at a scheduling disadvantage compared to their other UAA foes, the annual trip to Florida provides the Judges with an opportunity to build chemistry that they know is vital for a good season.

"This is a time where we're rooming together and we're all together for an entire week," Smith said. "This is a really great bonding experience because we get to see everyone's personality and that's really good for when we come back so that we can be even stronger for the next couple of months."

This bonding and team chemistry are especially important for this year's youthful group, a team with no seniors. Made up of seven rookies, four sophomores and three juniors, this year's squad is a very different team than last year's. Last year's group possessed the size and strength necessary to produce big hits and lots of home runs. This year's Judges are much smaller, which will force the team to do a lot more bunting and short hitting. Even early in the season, the Judges have noticed that their offense is lacking.

"Our weakness is at the plate; we're not getting the runs in when we need to," Rubin said. "That's going to be the biggest issue-just getting it together. Throughout this week, we've been stringing hits together, but it's not fully there yet."

While the Judges have not been very successful in their first games, they know that their UAA opponents are among the strongest they will face all season.

"This is the best practice we can get only because we play against some of the best teams in the country," Elissa Glucksman '06 said. "After we play these good teams when we come back we're pretty much prepared for anything."

"Our intensity level definitely shot up in the past couple of games but we just need to put the little pieces together in order to get on the board and get a couple wins under our belt," Smith said.

The Judges take on the University of Massachusetts Boston in Brandeis' home opener next Wednesday at 3 p.m.