Who needs practice? Not the Penn State softball team. The Nittany Lions will play a whole lot of games in effort to improve their young squad.

And they'll continue playing them against some of the nation's top competitors.

The Lions (1-9) haven't had the most welcoming start to this season, traveling to the West Coast and Texas for invitational tournaments over the past couple weekends. They've played against the very good teams in the country like No. 15 Stanford and No. 17 Oregon, and against some of the elite teams like No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 Arizona.

But over spring break, the Lions have a shot to add even out the tallies in the win and loss columns.

With two more tournaments and a pair of regular season games, they'll be competing in a dozen games total, with 11 in Tallahassee, Fla.

No. 6 Florida State gets the advantage over Penn State and the rest of the invitees to these tournaments, as it hosts the Seminole Challenge this weekend and the Florida State Invitational on the following weekend.

Talk about home-field advantage.

It seems the Seminoles are good at softball and at scheduling.

However, unlike the cream-of-the-crop opponents that have overwhelmed the Lions' schedule thus far, they are only pitted to face three top-25 teams in these games.

They take on Florida State and No. 12 Louisiana at Lafayette in the Seminole Challenge and No. 17 Nebraska in the Florida State Invitational.

-- By Jonathan Fodi