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BLACKSBURG - Virginia Tech head softball coach Scot Thomas, along with the Virginia Tech Athletics Department, released the Hokies’ 2011-12 softball schedule Wednesday, one packed with tough tournaments and games early on before the always-challenging ACC slate.

Tech, coming off a 37-20 season in 2011, will play eight fall exhibition games. The first four will come at the Hokie Fall Ball Tournament at the Botetourt Sports Complex in Botetourt, Va., the weekend of Sept. 24 and 25. Tech will also host Milligan in a doubleheader on Sunday, Oct. 2 at 1 o’clock and will play another home doubleheader against a to-be-determined opponent later on.

The Hokies will open the 2012 campaign on Feb. 10 at Jacksonville University’s Tournament in Florida, which features defending Atlantic Sun champion Jacksonville, Buffalo, UNC Greensboro and St. Louis in a five-game format. On Feb. 14, the Hokies and Highlanders will play the first of two single games, the first coming in Blacksburg before playing the second in Radford on April 18.

Virginia Tech will then head to the Plains of Auburn for the ACC/Big 12/SEC Challenge at the Jane B. Moore Field. This star-studded field will include Tech and Georgia Tech from the ACC, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State from the Big 12 (both 2011 WCWS participants) and Auburn and Alabama from the SEC (Auburn made the NCAA Regionals last year while Alabama advanced to the Women’s College World Series). Each team will play four games with none coming against the other team from its respective conference.

Up next will be a tournament at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, featuring CofC, Middle Tennessee, Seton Hall and Louisiana Monroe. That will take play Feb. 24-26.

The annual Spring Break trip will be a grinder as the Hokies will play in the Citrus Classic March 2-4 at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. While the schedule isn’t set, teams scheduled to attend include: Tennessee, Auburn, South Carolina, Michigan, Penn State, Baylor, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Louisiana Lafayette, Fordham, Oregon and six ACC schools, among many others.

In the middle of the week, Tech will head to Tampa for the USF Under Armour Showcase at the Eddie C. Moore Complex. But before that, the Hokies are scheduled to face the Dutch National Team in an exhibition game on Wednesday, March 7. Tech hasn’t played a national team since shocking the U.S. squad 1-0 in 2008. The Hokies are 1-2 in these games, splitting with Team U.S.A. (2004 in Columbus, Ga. and 2008 in Oklahoma City) and falling to the Chinese National Squad in Las Vegas in 2006. The Hokies will finish up with five games at the USF tournament that weekend.

In ACC play, Tech will open up with North Carolina at home on Feb. 17 and will also host Florida State and Virginia while traveling to NC State, Maryland, Boston College and Georgia Tech. The Hokies will play mid-week contests against UNC Greensboro, Cornell (home), James Madison (home), Longwood and Liberty (home). The 2012 ACC Softball Championship will be played Thursday, May 10-Saturday, May 12 in Chapel Hill, N.C. on the campus of UNC.

The full schedule can be found here.

For updates on Virginia Tech softball, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Softball).