After going 21-4 in Missouri Valley Conference play, the University of Northern Iowa softball team locked up their first regular season title in school history. With the regular season title came the No. 1 seed and a bye into the MVC tournament semifinals where the Panthers squared off with the host team, the No. 4 seed Southern Illinois University Salukis on May 11.

The Panthers (38-16) and Salukis (37-19) battled down to the wire in a classic pitchers’ duel between UNI’s Jamie Fisher and SIU’s Brittney Lang. Fisher finished with a complete game three-hitter in which she recorded four strikeouts, three walks and allowed one run off a fifth-inning SIU home run. Despite a strong pitching performance from Fisher, the Panthers were stifled by Lang, compiling only two hits in a 1-0 loss.

“The difference in that game was one pitch, really,” said UNI head coach Ryan Jacobs following the Panthers’ loss. “(SIU) did a nice job of attacking (Fisher) and swinging at some pitches that she was successful with early.

“The other thing that (SIU) did really well was they made great plays,” said Jacobs. “We swung the bats well, even though we didn’t have a ton of hits up there. We hit some balls really hard and (SIU) made some phenomenal defensive plays, and that’s what it takes to win these types of games.”

After the loss, the Panthers were forced to sit and wait to see if they would receive an at-large bid to the 64-team NCAA Tournament. However, with an RPI (Rankings Percentage Index) in the 70s and a 7-6 record in their final 13 games, the Panthers were left out of the field. “Our kids just kept fighting and kept fighting … We played our game; some days you win and some days you lose. That’s just the way it is sometimes,” said Jacobs. “That’s a tough way to lose, but we did what we’ve been doing all year long and we have been building and we’ve continue to build a lot this year and we continued to push that bar even higher.”

Next season, the Panthers will lose eight seniors and six starters from this year’s team.

“These kids continued to set another level of the foundation for the next group of kids who come in,” Jacobs said of his senior class. “It’s a process – it’s been a process, and we are just going to continue to do the things that we have been doing because we know they put us in a position to be successful.”

Despite losing eight seniors, the Panthers have a good group of young players, including MVC Pitcher of the Year Jamie Fisher, to build their future around.