Rough outing in conference meet

After a brief, game winning stint at home, UND Fighting Sioux softball has given up a trifecta of losses to The University of South Dakota.

The Coyotes defense has overwhelmed the Sioux for the last three games and the women have only been able to score three runs total. In contrast, the Coyotes have scored 22 runs and have won the games handily. The Sioux lead the all time record between the two teams, but the Coyotes, who are 30-17 this season, are having an exceptional year.

UND dropped the first game of their Independent Conference Tournament, at Greeley, Colorado to the Coyotes. The second day of the tournament they attempted to gain redemption but fell short to both Seattle University and Northern Colorado. The Sioux only have one game left and will be looking to push their wins into the double digits. They will face off against the winner between Seattle University and Cal Tech. If they come away with a win, they will place fifth overall in the tournament. If they lose, they will drop to sixth place and end their season with their win column stuck in the single digits.

Although the Sioux have been losing recently, they have had several standout players in their performances. Sophomore Hannah-Rose Peters has stood out in her hitting and led the team with a .667 hitting average against the Coyotes, was walked, and was the only player who managed to bring in an extra run when she was up to bat.

Later on in their tournament, junior Abby Rehberger and junior Kim Bushaw picked up a run each to follow Peters' lead against the Coyotes, and they were the sole hitters against Seattle.

The Sioux had no homeruns against the Jackrabbits and it showed. During their winning streak, they had several homeruns a game and they dominated. Many of their players contributed in spreading the scoring around and they scored in multiple innings. However, the Sioux struggled to bring in runners due to the Coyotes excellent defense.

In contrast to the previous performance, the Sioux managed to get many runners on base in their other games, but they had trouble getting the big hits when needed.

Their homeruns came at times when they had no one on base, only bringing in a single run. They also had plenty of doubles, but they were never in the same inning, so they did not make it all the way around the bases.

This lack of capitalizing made all the difference in their losses, since they only lost by an average of five runs and had many chances to score.

The team's struggles were not a complete loss, because many players were able to achieve personal bests and increase their records on the season. When Rehberger brought in her run against Seattle, it put her into eight

Senior Nicole Puerling increased her all time homerun record by hitting the lone homerun against Northern California. This was her 25th homerun.

Puerling also moved into a tie for all time most walked player in UND's softball history. She currently has been walked 59 times and shares the tie with Karen Crane who played from 03-06.