The Women’s softball team ended their season Wednesday evening with two losses to St. Norbert College (5-1, 7-6). This is the first time in five years that the Vikings have not made it to the conference tournament.
Junior Carrie Van Groll said, “It was one of our goals this year [to make the tournament] and I think we definitely had the talent and ability to make it, so it’s disappointing.”
The season started off strongly with solid performances in Fort Myers, Fla. The women played 10 games and came back to Appleton with seven wins.
Following their sunny games in Florida, the team suffered many canceled games due to weather. Closing the season, the team finished 15-12 overall and 6-7 in the Midwest Conference.
The Vikes, following two losses to Ripon on Wed., April 25, needed to win both games against St. Norbert to make it to the tournament.
Van Groll continued, “We didn’t have a good day against Ripon and it put us in a tough spot to have to come out and sweep SNC. If things had ended up differently at Ripon, we would have had a different outlook and there would have been less pressure to win out.”
Though it ended abruptly and less than perfectly, there were good things that came out of the season. The freshmen were extremely critical during the season, all three gaining starting roles.
“All of our freshmen stepped up and were contributors in one way or another this year,” Van Groll added. “We had good team chemistry and enjoyed playing with each other.”
Thoughts turn now to the seniors who made several contributions to the team both in play and off the field. “We will miss each of the seniors tremendously next year. They all brought something different to the team. Tammi Weiss struggled with injuries all year but you could always count on her support and voice in the dugout which really does make a big difference,” Van Groll explained.
Sophomore outfielder Amanda Hauser continued, “Molly Bouressa was an excellent first baseman and it will be very hard to fill her shoes next year. Toren Johnson was a dynamic player who was willing to be launched into any role Coach needed.”
Next year, there will be big shoes to follow. “People will need to step up and we will have to fill in the holes that Molly, Toren and Tammi are leaving, but we have a lot of returning talent. Hopefully the returning players can learn from this year and understand how important our conferences games are,” Van Groll commented.
We look forward to watching the Lady Vikes return in full force next spring!
Short softball season cut shorter -mts – mcb
