OMAHA, Neb. – College of Saint Mary is excited to begin its 2026 softball season on Saturday in Davenport, Iowa.

The Flames begin the new campaign indoors at the Ambrose Dome, where they'll take on Clarke University at 1 p.m., followed by a second game at 5:30 p.m. against St. Ambrose University. They'll return to the same venue Sunday to face Cleary (Mich.) University at 10:45 a.m. and Clarke again at 3:15 p.m.

"We're excited to start,'' said CSM Coach Carolyn Todd Bray, who begins her 11^th season at the helm. "The attitudes have been great. The culture's been great. Work ethic's been great. Team side of the things are going really good.''

CSM is looking to improve upon last year's records of 9-30 overall and 7-15 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. The Flames lost eight of those games by one run.

"We're really working on confidence this year,'' Bray said. "We felt like last year we would be really successful in practice with displaying our skills, and it would not necessarily show up in games. With our focus on building confidence this year, we want to be able to execute when we need to and win those closer games.''

The Flames have been picked 10^th by the league's coaches among the 12 teams in the GPAC Preseason Poll. They graduated catcher Paige Stuck, who is now on staff as an assistant coach, along with No. 2 pitcher Megan Garcia and relief pitcher Kymber Shallenberger.

Leading the returnees are juniors Ella Watts and Shaylynn Campbell, and sophomore Maria Perez.

Watts was named second-team All-GPAC last season. She led the Flames in doubles (12), home runs (7), runs scored (32) and slugging percentage (.650), was the co-leader in hits (41), RBIs (25) and walks (18), and ranked second in batting average (.350) and on-base percentage (.445).

Campbell and Perez were honorable mention All-GPAC selections. Campbell batted .315 and shared the team lead with 41 hits. She also was the Flames' No. 1 pitcher. Perez led the Flames in batting average (.354) and on-base percentage (.475). She also batted .431 in conference play.

Other top returnees include seniors Amber Kosmicki and Kayla Reed, junior Cassie Wiseman and sophomore Maycee Hays.

Kosmicki hit .298 last year and shared the team lead with 25 RBIs, while Reed is in line to be a four-year starter in center field and was honorable mention All-GPAC as a sophomore. Wiseman batted .319 last year to rank third on the team, while Hays hit .274 in her first collegiate season.

The biggest obstacle facing the Flames right now is injuries. They expect three starters to be unavailable for the opening weekend, and two could be out significantly longer.

"We'll have to make some adjustments,'' Bray said. "We're trying to figure out the right pieces of the puzzle.''

The Flames coach said everything in softball starts with pitching.

"The positive is that we have more pitching depth than in the past, so we're excited about that,'' Bray said. "We'll decide who we're going to pitch and go from there.''

In terms of newcomers to the program, Bray said there is talent there. It's a matter of figuring out how to use those new pieces, and determining whether they're temporary fixes or permanent contributors.

One thing Bray knows is that the team's seniors, Kosmicki and Reed, are leading it well.

"I'm really happy with our two seniors,'' she said. "They've been great. Their leadership has been great.''

CSM will have about 20 nonconference games before heading into GPAC play.

"We'll use the nonconference games to see what we have and build that confidence,'' Bray said. "A goal is to try to have the pieces figured out by conference on March 18. Hands down, our No. 1 goal is to get into the conference tournament.''

The top eight teams in the conference standings will advance to the GPAC tournament quarterfinals in late April.