North Dakota State takes on Southeastern Louisiana (5-1) in the first game of the Florida Bubly Invitational at 8 a.m. CT Friday, Feb. 14, in Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. ... Tournament field includes host and No. 8/11-ranked Florida, Florida A&M and Longwood ... The tournament schedule:

Florida Bubly Invitational
Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium / Gainesville, Fla.
Friday, Feb. 14
BISON vs. Southeastern Louisiana (5-1), 8 a.m. Central Time
BISON at #8/11 Florida (4-1), 3:30 p.m. CT

Saturday, Feb. 15
BISON vs. Florida A&M (0-4), 8 a.m. CT
BISON at #8/11 Florida, 10:30 a.m. CT

Sunday, Feb. 16
BISON vs. Longwood, Va. (2-2), 8 a.m. CT

Up Next
North Dakota State travels to the Texas Invitational on Feb. 21-23.

Quickly Around The Horn
North Dakota State's first 36 games will be on the road, hitting tournaments in South Carolina, Florida, Texas, California and Utah ... The home opener is scheduled for April 4-5 with a Summit League series against Purdue Fort Wayne at Tharaldson Park ... NDSU is scheduled to host the Summit League tournament on May 6-9 ... A few big games to look forward to early in the season are North Dakota State taking on No. 8/11 Florida (Feb. 14/15) and No. 6/6 Texas (Feb. 21), and then later in the spring, No. 14/13 Minnesota (April 22) ... A season ago, North Dakota State posted the top team ERA of 2.57 in the Summit League ... League leader KK Leddy graduated but the Bison return Paige Vargas, who owned the league's fifth-best ERA at 3.01 ... Last season, Vargas compiled a 17-5 record with 111 strikeouts in 146.1 innings of work in 28 appearances ... Designated player Cara Beatty returns for her junior campaign after posting a .298 batting average and finishing fifth among Summit League players in RBIs (41) ... Beatty enters the year as the league's top returning RBI producer.

Bison #SummitSB Preseason Favorite
For the eighth consecutive year, North Dakota State was named The Summit League preseason softball favorite ... The Bison won their 10th tournament title in 2019 ... NDSU earned six of seven first-place votes for a total of 34 points ... The Bison return four all-Summit League selections including first team shortstop Montana DeCamp, designated player Cara Beatty, outfielder Madyson Camacho, and second team pitcher Paige Vargas, who was named the Freshman of the Year ... In addition, Vargas was selected Summit League tournament MVP and Camacho was all-tournament ... Vargas and Camacho are listed as 'players to watch' in 2020.

The Mueller File
The North Dakota State head coach is Darren Mueller (19th season, 26th overall) ... Mueller has compiled a 648-353 record (.647) including 212-48 (.815) vs. Summit League competition (including tournament) ... Mueller reached career win No. 600 against Western Illinois (G2 5-5-18) ... Summit League career win No. 200 came against South Dakota State (G2 4-14-19) ... The Bison had 10 straight 30-plus win seasons from 2007-2016, and have at least 30 victories in 12 of the past 13 seasons ... Mueller became the program's all-time winningest coach with the 4-1 victory at Western Illinois (4-16-11) ... North Dakota State has won 10 Summit League tournament championships (2009-10-11-12, 2014-15-16-17-18-19) to advance to NCAA regional play ... The Bison (10-20) won the NCAA Norman Regional in 2009 and advanced to the NCAA Super Regional at Arizona State ... NDSU has won eight Summit League regular season crowns (2008, 2012-13-14-15-16-18-19) ... Rounding out the Bison staff are associate head coach Gerice Olson and assistant coach Allie Walljasper ... The NDSU coaching staff earned the 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019 Summit League Coaching Staff of the Year honors ... The NDSU staff earned 2009, 2015 and 2016 National Fastpitch Coaches Association Midwest Coaching Staff of the Year award ... Mueller was the 2006 and 2007 Division I Independent Coach of the Year.
MUELLER WIN CHART
1 vs. Quincy (Ill.), 3-1-02
100 vs. Southern Connecticut State, 3-20-04
200 vs. South Dakota State, 3-25-07
300 vs. Wright State, 3-12-10
400 vs. Northern Illinois, 3-13-13
500 vs. IUPUI, 5-9-15
600 vs. Western Illinois, 5-5-18