The UW-Eau Claire softball team kicked off the season with three wins and a loss at the Rochester Dome Tournament last weekend.

The tournament, a two-day event hosted in Rochester, Minn., allowed various regional teams to compete despite the terrible softball weather.

Eau Claire started their weekend off playing St. Scholastica (Minn.) Saturday afternoon. The victory went to the Blugolds winning 10-6.

“We did a lot of very good things,” head coach Leslie Huntington said.

She said there are always things that can be tweaked and practiced. Last year, the Blugolds lost two captains, but still look to provide similar positive results this season.

Against Loras College (Iowa), the team went on to win from mercy rule after the Blugolds ran the scoreboard up 14-1 in five innings.

Eau Claire’s second day started early when the team played St. Norbert. The Blugolds defeated the Green Knights 7-6 in eight innings.

Immediately after game three, Eau Claire played Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.) to finish their play in the tournament. Eau Claire was defeated 8-9.

“I think it went really well. We definitely had one of our best performances in the dome since I’ve been here,” junior catcher and captain Casey Arnold said. “We learned a lot about our team and what we need to work on.”

Despite the success, Huntington said she believes it will be difficult to go back to indoor practices. She said once the team has had a taste of authentic playing conditions, it’s hard to keep up motivation in practice.

“There’s no benefit to being inside, especially after we played on a regulation-sized field,” Huntington said. “That’s always the challenge at the beginning of the season.”

She said the team wants to be known for its defense, and being stuck in the gym due to weather, it’s hard to get better at pitching and defense.

“I’m very concerned,” Huntington said. “Not only with the amount of snow but the temperatures that aren’t allowing the snow to melt.”

Because of the snow, the Blugolds will travel during spring break to Arizona to play in the Tucson Invitational Games.

“The spring break trip is critical and will be 25 percent of our season,” Huntington said. “All the games that we’ll play are considered in region games and we don’t have any games where we can afford to take any breaks.”

Along with the competition, the invitational brings the opportunity to grow as a team and develop chemistry, which will be especially important this year as nine of the 22 players are freshmen.

Arnold said in the years prior the trip has helped bond the team thanks to the games and planned activities.

Moving forward, the team will continue to live by the motto on their team necklaces, “we will.”

“We have the teammates, we have the speed, we have the pitching, we have the defense, we have the hitting for sure, we just need to execute,” Arnold said. “We definitely feel that we will contend for the national championship. That is our ultimate goal and that’s what we want to accomplish.”