VERMILLION, S.D.—Trips to Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, and eight games against teams from either the SEC, Big Ten or ACC highlight South Dakota's 2024 softball schedule announced Friday by head coach Robert Wagner.
 
The season starts Feb. 9 at a tournament hosted by Georgia, an NCAA super regional team last season. The Coyotes face Purdue and Georgia on opening day. It will be the program's first matchup against the host Bulldogs.
 
South Dakota returns to the Peach State the following weekend for five more games at a tournament hosted by Georgia State in Atlanta (Feb. 16-18). The third weekend takes the team to Texas for a tournament hosted by Texas A&M-Commerce (Feb. 23-25). Week four is Greenville, South Carolina, and two games each against Akron and host Furman (March 1-3).
 
The Coyotes will take on Ohio State, Tennessee and Missouri State on the first weekend of spring break in Knoxville, Tennessee (March 8-10). The Lady Vols were 51-10 last season and national semifinalists at the Women's College World Series. USD first faced Tennessee in 2013. It will be the program's first greet with Ohio State.
 
South Dakota will visit Tennessee State (March 12) and Middle Tennessee State (March 13) before arriving in Louisville, Kentucky, March 14 for a tournament hosted by the Cardinals, a fourth NCAA tournament team on the Coyotes' non-conference slate. South Dakota will face Louisville and Illinois for the first time. Michigan is also on the weekend slate. The Coyotes upset the Wolverines in their only prior meeting in 2019.
 
Summit League play begins at home against conference rival South Dakota State (March 23-24). Other home series include Omaha (April 13-14) and North Dakota State (May 3-4). A trip to Creighton on April 9 is the only interruption to conference play and the only non-conference foe that will be a rematch from last season. All Summit League weekends are three-game series comprising of a doubleheader and one single game.
 
The Summit League Tournament is May 8-11 in Brookings, South Dakota. All six qualifying Summit teams will comprise the field. St. Thomas, the seventh Summit team, is amid a Division I transition and remains ineligible to compete in the postseason tournament.