The Flyer softball team has one thing on its mind - getting to the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

The past two seasons the Flyers have fallen just shy of making the top six cut to advance to the postseason.

"Our goal is to qualify for the conference tournament and in order to do that, we have to be in the top six in the conference," Head Coach Cara Clark-LaPlaca said. "We have a great shot and that is our sole focus in our conference season."

In the last six games of the 2009 season the Flyers went 4-2 and outscored their opponents 43-37. They hope to build upon this success to start off the new season.

"One of the things we want to do this season is take the success we had at the end of last season and use it to continue what we are going to start [this season]," senior outfielder Molly Meyer said. "We want to build off of what we did last season, [off of] what we accomplished at the end of April and May, and use it to jump start this season."

Clark-LaPlaca anticipates particular success from the Flyer offense.

"We do a lot of fundamental work, and we focus on what our players' strengths are," she said. "[We are a] very balanced team. Our offense has the potential to be one of the most dominate in the conference. We have tremendous power, really good speed and overall balance up and down our lineup. Offensively we should see a lot of good things."

Additionally, the team is not focusing on any one opponent, but rather looking at the season as a whole.

"We really try to play the game and not one particular opponent," Clark-LaPlaca said. "We talk a lot about playing within the game and not really worrying about the other dugout. We just want to maximize our ability to focus on our game and let things happen the way they do."

Senior pitcher Eva Rappe agreed.

"We are really trying to play one pitch at a time, one inning at a time, in order to accomplish that goal in the end [of going to the tournament]," she said.

The Flyer seniors are poised to help the team achieve that goal.

"We have tremendous leadership from our senior class," Clark-LaPlaca said. "We have four seniors that provide a great amount of guidance and leadership for our underclassmen. They've been starters for four years and that's kind of going to be the key. I think their leadership and their performance [will be important]."

Clark-LaPlaca has given the seniors the tools they need to be effective leaders.

"Coach Clark has done a lot for us, like in captains training," Rappe said. "We've gone over a leadership manual, and I think we've learned a lot as a group, and hopefully that has been able to help us set an example and get people to want to follow and get underclassmen prepared to lead in future years."

One thing the team will always try to keep in mind is to draw off the things they do best.

"We have to stick to our strengths," Meyer said. "We've got a lot of talent on this team and diverse abilities and for us to be successful and to continue on the note we ended on last year [we need] to keep building on what our players do well and mix that together and put our whole game together."

Finally, they need to love what they are doing.

"I think one of the most important things for us to do is to have fun," Rappe said. "I think we play a lot better when we have fun, and we're just playing because we love the game."

The Flyers are ready to begin and show the A-10 what they can do.

"We are really excited for it," Meyer said. "We're ready and we're going to do some great things."