Northern Illinois softball coach Dee Abrahamson wasn`t feeling well last Tuesday, so she skipped her team`s double-header against Bradley.
It was okay, though, because her Huskies (38-7) had been on a roll. Earlier that week, they won their league title by shutting out every North Star Conference opponent in a round-robin tournament.
That`s right. Wisconsin-Green Bay went down 4-0. Cleveland State lost 6-0. Valparaiso fell 1-0. De Paul, 3-0. Illinois-Chicago, 2-0. Akron, 2-0.
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Without Abrahamson, however, NIU couldn`t shut out Bradley. It only swept the double-header 3-1, 3-1.
The Huskies also swept a double-header with De Paul on Friday, ending what they hope was a good enough year to get them into the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid for the second straight year. They finished seventh in last year`s tournament.
”This year everybody came through,” said center-fielder Jill Justin of Oak Lawn, the team`s leading hitter with a .443 average. ”We wanted to prove that (last year) wasn`t just luck.”
This year`s NCAA bids will be announced Sunday. Abrahamson is optimistic, but there are only six at-large spots. And while the Huskies beat every opponent they were supposed to beat, they also had been blown out a few times by better teams they had already beaten. That might weigh against NIU.
”This has been kind of a Jekyll and Hyde team, whereas last year we were real consistent,” Abrahamson said.
The tournament would be the last hurrah for seniors Justin and Beth Schrader, a pitcher from Wheaton. Schrader (21-3) is the winningest pitcher in Huskie history, with 68 victories. Justin led the nation in hitting her sophomore year (.503) and again as a junior (.484).
”She`s in a class by herself,” said Abrahamson.