The Dominican University softball split a pair of games on Tuesday morning behind a no-hit performance from sophomore left-hander Michele Behrens (Frankfort, Ill.) to shutout the Eastern Nazarene University Lions, 7-0, before falling to the Olivet College Comets, 2-1, despite a complete-game performance from senior right-hander Haley Locher (Lisle, Ill.).
 
The Stars, now 4-2 on the season, will enjoy a day off in Fort Myers, Florida, on Wednesday before returning to CenturyLink Sports Complex on Thursday to take on Bethany Lutheran College and University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.
 
Game One:  Dominican 7, Eastern Nazarene 0
 
Behrens retired the first six hitters of the game before she issued a leadoff walk in the top of the third to Becky Bahr.  After Bahr was caught trying to steal second, pitched around a one-out walk to keep the no-hitter intact.
 
Behrens then retired the next five Lions' hitters before surrendering a two out walk to Bahr in the bottom of the fifth.  Bahr would be the final runner to reach in the game as Behrens escaped the fifth when she got Vivianna Coix to ground out to end the inning before retiring the final six hitters she faced including a strikeout of Heidi Gomez to end the game, just the second punch out of the game for the left-hander.
 
Offensively, the Stars got a single run in the top of the second when Catherine Conte (Elmwood Park, Ill.) singled to plate Armani Procter (Chicago, Ill.) who led off the inning with a double to center.  Dominican added another run in the third when Sara Hausl (St. Charles, Ill.) started a two-out rally with a single up the middle.  After Hausl stole second, Alyssa Domico (Naperville, Ill.) lined a single to right to push across Hausl.
 
Another two-out rally put another run on the board for the Stars when Lauren Maynard (Griffith, Ind.) doubled to the fence in right-center to score Ali Woitovich (Downers Grove, Ill.) to give the Stars a three-run lead after four innings.  The Stars then broke the game open in the top of the seventh, plating four runs on three hits and an error.  The big blow in the inning was an RBI double by Marissa Burns (Shorewood, Ill.) ahead of Woitovich who followed with a RBI single up the middle to cap the game's scoring.
 
Behrens improved to 1-1 on the season, facing just 23 batters along the way.
 
Offensively for the Stars, Hausl and Woitovich picked up three hits apiece while Burns and Domico pounded out two hits apiece.
 
Game Two: Olivet 2, Dominican 1
 
Game two featured a pair of fine pitching performances from Dominican's Locher and Olivet's Ashlyn Grubb.
 
The Stars took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Gabi Alfaro (Aurora, Ill.) lined a one-out double to left field.  After Hausl bounced out to second to push Alfaro to third and Domico walked, Dominican executed the double steal with Alfaro sliding into home just under the tag from Olivet's Larissa Ludwick.
 
Olivet answered back in the bottom of the inning, plating a run when Sydney Tharp started the inning, drawing a walk off of Locher.  After a sac bunt and a bunt single, Tharp was pushed across on a sacrifice to the tie the game at 1-1.
 
After the Stars went 1-2-3 in the fourth, Olivet got back to work when Grubb started the bottom of the inning with a single up the middle.  Two outs and a walk later, the Comets tallied the game-winning run when Tharp doubled to the gap in right-center.
 
Dominican managed just one more runner the rest of the way, a one-out single by Domico in the top of the sixth.
 
The Stars logged just four hits in the loss, two coming off the bat of Domico.
 
Locher took the loss in the circle for Dominican, falling to 2-1 on the year in the circle.  The senior surrendered just four hits, giving up two runs while walking one and striking out one.