The Dominican University softball team wrapped up their 2016 spring trip to the Gene Cusic Classic in Fort Myers, Florida, on Saturday, falling to the UW-Superior Yellowjackets, 3-2, before topping the Nichols College Bison, 7-2.
 
The Stars are now 8-4 on the season with their next game scheduled for Thursday, March 24, when Dominican heads for Notre Dame, Indiana, for a twinbill against the St. Mary's College Belles.
 
Game One: UW-Superior 3, Dominican 2
 
The Stars staked Michele Behrens (Frankfort, Ill.) to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Alyssa Domico (Naperville, Ill.) deposited an 0-1 pitch over the fence in left field for her first homer of the season with Sara Hausl (St. Charles, Ill.) aboard.  Dominican rapped out three hits in the first including doubles by Hausl and Ali Woitovich (Downers Grove, Ill.) but the Stars' bats only managed the two runs.
 
Superior pulled within a run in the bottom of the third inning when Brittany Thomfordha doubled after a Sasha Fjeran single to plate Fjeran.
 
Two innings later, Thomfordha delivered with another RBI double to knot the game at 2-2 and then scored when Kari Shipman followed with a single to left field.
 
Offensively, Dominican didn't manage a hit after the fourth inning with Sarah Hendrickson retiring the final ten hitters she faced to pick up the win.
 
Hendrickson scattered five hits in the complete-game victory, improving to 3-1 while Haley Locher (Lisle, Ill.) took the loss for the Stars out of the bullpen, falling to 3-2 on the season.  Locher was two runs on three hits while working the final two innings.
 
Game Two: Dominican 7, Nichols 2
 
Hausl broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the fifth, looping a double down the right field line to plate Gabby Curran (Elmhurst, Ill.) and Abby Maike (Savanna, Ill.) after Curran reached on an error and Maike followed with a single to center. Curran then plated Catherine Conte (Elmwood Park, Ill.) in the top of the sixth when the pair roped back-to-back ground rule doubles down the left field line.
 
The Stars added a pair of runs in the top of the seventh to lift freshman left-hander Sydney Kuderna (Naperville, Ill.) to her third win of the season.  Kuderna racked up six strikeouts while scattering seven hits and two walks in the complete-game effort.
 
Offensively, the Stars pounded out 12 hits, two apiece for Curran, Maike, Hausl and Woitovich.