For the Ohio State softball team, success is heavily rooted in determination — a determination to prove last year’s Super Regional berth was not a fluke and to show the country OSU can make it to the Women’s College World Series.

“That’s what we’ve been working for since the fall,” senior catcher Sam Marder said. “Just not being a one-year program team. We want to make a statement that we’re Ohio State softball and that we’re a really dominant program. Our main goal is to show the nation who we are and what we can do. By going to the world series it’s definitely going to help.”

With a number of team goals in mind for 2010, Coach Linda Kalafatis said beating Michigan is a No. 1 priority, coupled with Big Ten Title contention. Everything else is up to the passion of the players.

“I told the team that the program goals, they’re the same every year. They don’t change,” Kalafatis said. “Now what they want to do beyond that is their mission. That’s what they have to determine.”

And the team is determined to reach beyond last year’s potential.

At the 2009 Super Regionals in Athens, Ga. the Buckeyes lost in a best-of-three series to Georgia. The team’s 47-11 season set the record for second-most wins in program history at OSU.

With a majority of the roster returning and the comeback of pitcher Lindsay Bodeker, the team has matured a lot from the start of last season, Marder said.

“I definitely think that it helps that we’ve been there,” Marder said. “We’ve been to the Super Regionals. We know how it feels to play on ESPN. We know how it feels to be in that spotlight. Last year it was kind of new for everybody … and the team was pretty young. And so I think, since our team is older this year and has been there, we’re a really mature team and we know what it takes to get there.”

The team began preseason ball in Houston, Texas on Feb. 12 against Houston, Baylor, Kansas and Louisville universities. After a rough start in a 1-0 loss to Houston, the team found its rhythm and won four straight to place first in the tournament.

“These tournaments are critical in getting games in and rating percentage index ratings,” Kalafatis said. “Basically what we try to do in the preseason tournaments is to position ourselves against teams we know have done well in our conferences or nationally so that when you get into conference play our RPI is strong. Then we can worry about winning a Big Ten Championship while we’re in conference play.”

Marder had a big weekend in Houston, batting .500 through five games and recording six RBI. She now has 47 career homers after hitting four during the stretch.

As a result, the two-time All American was named Big Ten Player of the Week.

“I was so proud of how our team played. You can’t do that individually — it has to do with what your team does and everything,” Marder said. “I’m just so happy we started off on a really good note … and we ended the weekend really strong. So I’m really excited to see what we do the rest of the year.”

Although records are “really fun to go after,” Marder remains focused on providing for her team.

“[In] my senior year I’m just trying to really focus on leaving as good a player as I can possibly be,” she said. “Whether [or] not I break records is not as important as leaving knowing I did everything I could to help the program.”

Among the returning players from last season, senior Whitney Cooper takes the field playing second base. Having played shortstop most of her life, Cooper made the switch last year to second base and had her best season yet.

“I think last year I was a little nervous, a little excited at the same time. But it was the right move, best move for the team and I really enjoyed it,” Cooper said about the switch. “This year is another year. [I’m] just going to take it one game at a time, but hopefully it’ll be the same.”

With Bodeker’s return to the mound, Kalafatis said despite necessary improvement in hitting, she was happy with OSU’s pitching.

“I was very, very pleased with our defense and very, very pleased with our pitching. Maybe even a little surprised with our pitching just because Bodeker hasn’t thrown since last May and her knee has been in such question,” Kalafatis said. “Sometimes you just don’t know what to expect from the young ones. But I thought they were in good command, the entire team, and they were really the leading group for the weekend.”

After placing second in the Hatter Invitational tournament in Deland, Fla. Feb. 19 through 21, Kalafatis has high expectations for this season and looks forward to the start of conference play March 23.

“If this first weekend was a preview for what they’re going to give us all year,” Kalafatis said, “we’ll definitely be in contention for a postseason spot and maybe one of those top eight.”