Members of the Illinois softball team are writing a blog, which will be published throughout the 2020-21 school year. Follow all the action of Head coach Tyra Perry's squad right here on FIGHTINGILLINI.com.

Hello Illini Fans!

My name is Tori McQueen and I am a freshman pitcher from Mooresville, Indiana. I am majoring in community health, but I am planning on trying to switch over to Kinesiology in hopes of working with athletes one day. As if being a freshman is not challenging enough, being a freshman in the midst of the pandemic has definitely been challenging but I am so grateful for the team and coaches because they helped me through it.

We finished up our fall practices and most of us are at home now getting to spend time with our families. Although the fall looked much different due to the pandemic, we are blessed that we got the opportunity to practice and be on campus. We were fortunate enough to have a few team practices and play some intrasquad scrimmages this fall since we could not play our normal games that we would have gotten to play. The energy and atmosphere during the team practices and scrimmages were unmatched and it was great to be together as a team while still following the COVID-19 guidelines. During the week we had individual practices, which were where we were in small groups so we could all make sure to stay healthy. These gave us the opportunity to work one-on-one with our very talented coaching staff more, which was helpful.

We have many goals set for the upcoming season and I am confident that we will accomplish all of them. I look forward to the spring season because this team is definitely something special and we cannot wait to show you. Stay safe everyone!!

I-L-L

Tori McQueen