The Carolina Classic marked the beginning of the softball season, as N.C. State came away with one loss and three wins in Chapel Hill this weekend.

The February cold provided an obstacle to all teams as the warmest day was Sunday with a high of 55 degrees.

“It’s tough, but we always look at it as the other team’s playing in the same weather we are,” coach Lisa Navas said. “You can be bothered by all the other elements or use them to your advantage. It’s cold. So what? You still have to play.”

Navas said, while the team has a lot to work on, she was pleased overall with its performance throughout the tournament.

“We were able to give a lot of kids some playing experience and just doing some different things,” Navas said. “But we made some mistakes, and we saw some holes that we need to work on, which is good.”

Senior Abbie Sims pitched a no-hitter to start the season with a 7-0 win over Ohio Friday afternoon. Sims only allowed two hits and held Gardner-Webb scoreless Saturday, while Wolfpack offense accumulated five runs.

“We have a lot to work on, but that was a good start,” Sims said. “It gives us good hope, but we have a lot of work to do. We couldn’t go out and play the ACCs right now. That’d be kind of scary, so we just need to go practice this week and get some stuff done in practice.”

Navas said the need for improvement was demonstrated in the 5-3 loss to Penn State on Saturday.

“We came out a little flat, so that was disappointing,” Navas said. “We beat ourselves and threw the ball around and made some mistakes.”

State finished the tournament Sunday with a win over Coastal Carolina. Junior Megan Dalthorp allowed only two hits and two walks.

While strong fielding and pitching contributed to a tight defense, home runs kept runners moving around the bases. The Pack collected seven home runs throughout the weekend.

Senior Heather Gelbard contributed two home runs to the team’s total.

“We scored most of our runs off of home runs or other teams’ errors,” Gelbard said. “We need to work more on making things happen, the little things, like putting the bunt down, moving runners over, stuff like that.”

Navas said she doesn’t mind home runs at all.

“It’s fun when you hit home runs, and we’re averaging 1.8 home runs a game,” Navas said.

Gelbard said the tournament was a positive beginning for the Pack.

“We did a lot of good things,” Gelbard said. “Definitely some areas where we need to improve, a lot of things we could still do better, but overall it’s a pretty good start. We’ve got a lot to build off of.”

While the team is not quite where she wants it to be, Navas said the season is wide open and full of potential.

“We need to be sharper,” Navas said. “But it is the beginning of the season, and we’ve got about 60 games left.”