The Billiken softball team ended their season on a roll that almost led to an Atlantic 10 Championship. After a 26-31 record in the regular season, the Lady Bills had their sights set on a NCAA tournament berth. That mark didn’t seem attainable at the beginning of the year when the team dropped its first seven games. Fortunately, that didn’t faze the team or first year head coach John Conway as they wrapped up the season in the A-10 Tournament.

In the double-elimination tournament, the third-seeded Bills won their first game against sixth-seeded George Washington University, 5-4, in come-from-behind fashion. The next opponent was second-seeded Fordham. The Bills fell to a 10-2 defeat. Facing elimination, the Billikens had to win their next two games in order to make it to the finals of the A-10 Tournament. They beat fifth-seeded Charlotte with a score of 1-0 and pulled off a stunning upset against Fordham to advance to the championship game against UMass. The Bills battled, but ended up losing to the Minutewomen, with a tally of 9-3.

Despite the loss, the Lady Bills still surpassed all expectations throughout the season, setting school records in wins (29), hits (416), homeruns (25) and RBIs (202). The Billikens finished third place overall and with a final record of 29-33 in the A-10 Conference. Outstanding individual performances by certain Bills were noticed for All-Conference accolades. Junior pitcher Ashley Levan and senior outfielder Jill Pursell were named to the 1st Team All-Conference squad. Freshman catcher Nicki Jost was named to the All-Rookie team, while Levan and junior pitcher Lorena Flocarri were named to the Academic All-Conference team.

The progress shown by the team throughout the year leads many on the team to believe that those records that were set will once again be broken next year. Freshman starter Brittany Schmidt says, “There are plenty of accomplishments that we’re all proud about, but with a little improvement, there’s no telling how far we can go next year.”