The Dominican University softball team split their third straight Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) doubleheader, dropping game one to the Lakeland College Muskies, 4-1, on Sunday before rallying for a game two victory, 4-2.
 
Freshman right-hander Cat Klostermann continued her fantastic rookie season, picking up her third win of the week and moving to 5-2 on the season with a complete-game performance in Dominican's game two win.  Klostermann surrendered just one earned run in the win, pitching around eight hits, one walk and one Dominican error while striking out three.
 
The Stars staked Klostermann to a two-run lead before she threw her first pitch of the afternoon.  Ali Woitovich plated Gabby Curran with an RBI single in the top of the first and then drew a throw during the next at-bat with Abby Maike at third, allowing Maike to cross for the Stars' second run of the ballgame.
 
After Lakeland strung together three hits off Klostermann to plate a single run in the bottom of the third, the Stars bats got back to work in the top of the fourth.  Alyssa Domico started the frame with a single and Woitovich promptly followed with a double to put runners at second and third.  Lakeland's Taylor Bush retired the next two hitters before both Woitovich and Domico scored on a Muskies' error.
 
Lakeland got an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh but Klostermann nailed down the win, stranding the tying run out at second base.
 
The Stars managed just four hits in the win led by Woitovich who went 2-for-3 at the plate with a double and one RBI.
 
For the Muskies, Lindsay Cudecki was tagged with the loss in the circle, tossing three innings before giving way to Bush who didn't allow a hit over the final four innings.
 
In the game one loss, Dominican again took an early lead before their defense even took to the diamond.  Woitovich's RBI double scored Curran, giving sophomore left-hander Sydney Kuderna a 1-0 advantage before taking to the circle.
 
The Muskies got to Kuderna in the bottom of the second when Megan Laib homered with Sami Jo Williams aboard to give the Muskies a 2-1 advantage.  Laib drove in her third run of the game in the fourth with an RBI double to plate Rikki Vela.  Lakeland then added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth when Paige Chladek roped an RBI double to score Mikayla Hilton.
 
Offensively, the Stars put a runner on base in six out of the seven innings, stranding one runner in every frame except for the fourth inning.  Curran led the way offensively, 2-for-3 while the Stars managed seven hits as a team.
 
Kuderna fell to 11-4 in the circle, surrendering four runs on seven hits while walking none and striking out three.
 
For the Muskies, Niki Saviano improves to 5-4 in the circle, scattering seven hits over seven innings and surrendering just one run.
 
"We made a lot of adjustments at the plate today and showed significant improvement throughout the course of the day," said Dominican's head coach Cristina Lukas. "We need to take that into the games against Concordia Chicago on Thursday.  Our defense is solid and keeping us in games right now."
 
The Stars, now 18-8 on the season and 3-5 in league play, return to action on Thursday, traveling down Division Street to take on their River Forest rivals, the Concordia University Chicago Cougars.  First pitch for the NACC doubleheader is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.