The Dominican University softball team took the fourth-seeded Marian University Sabres to extra innings before falling in the Stars' Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament opener, 2-1 in nine innings, on Thursday evening in Aurora, Illinois.  The Stars will be back on the diamond on Friday morning, taking on the Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors in a win-or-go-home game at 11:00 a.m.
 
The Stars got on the board first, breaking a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth when Megan Hufnagle singled through the left side of the infield with the bases loaded, pushing across Cecilia Winters McCarthy who had singled with two outs to spark a two-out rally.  After back-to-back walks to Julia Orozco and Katie Fredrick, Hufnagle ripped a sharp groundball to give the Stars the lead.
 
Dominican's Allyson Dilday managed to keep the Sabres off the board until the bottom of the fifth. Dilday worked in and out of trouble through the first four innings, stranding runners in each of the first three innings, including working out of a bases loaded jam in the second and first and third with one out in the third.
 
In the fifth, Marian again loaded the bases with nobody out.  Dilday got the first out when Taylor Lauscher popped out to second but the Sabres managed to even the score, 1-1, on Peyton Loesch's sacrifice fly.
 
In the sixth, Dominican got a one out single from Orozco but stranded pinch runner Maddie Sniegolski at third when Hufnagle when down on strikes.
 
Dilday worked into the bottom of the eighth in the circle for the Stars before back-to-back one out singles chased the Stars' rookie right-hander from the game.  Cat Klostermann entered the game, escaping the eighth with a pop out and ground out.  After the Stars went down in order in the top of the ninth, the Sabres got a leadoff single and then put runners at first and third when Kira Hall-Risor laid down a sacrifice bunt and reached on an error.  After Hall-Risor stole second, Andrea Meagher plated the winning run with a sac fly.
 
Klostermann took the loss in the circle, falling to 9-10 on the season while giving up just one unearned run over an inning of work in relief.
 
Dilday, making her 20^th start of the season, lasted 7.1 innings and surrendered just one run on nine hits and one walk while striking out four.
 
Offensively, the Stars managed five hits, two for Winters McCarthy who finished the game 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and a run scored.