Defending their three-time North Star Conference Championship trophy will be the name of the game for the NIU softball team on Friday.

The Huskies, who joined the NSC in 1988, have held the title every year since. If they can keep the streak alive this year, NIU will be the first school in NSC history to win four consecutive titles in any sport.

Head coach Dee Abrahamson finds the honor to be important, but is quick to admit that her players’ minds may be elsewhere.

“It’s a really hard time right now,” said Abrahamson. “The girls have to take finals early and worry about packing up for home. Conference tournament is always tough on the players.”

It’s possible that the team may have to adjust more than they expected.

The current forecast calls for rain the entire weekend. If the weather postpones any of the games, they will be made up Monday, which will take even more time away from the players.

Despite the bad timing and the predicted poor weather, Abrahamson and the Huskies find the tourney to be rather important.

“If we win it again,” said Abrahamson, “the freshmen will be happy that we won. But the seniors will be glad that they won it (the championship) from the time they got here to the time they left.

The other teams in the conference may have something to say about that. Abrahamson cites that any team could walk away with the title.

“DePaul has the No. 1 seed and they have played strongly in the regular season. And Wisconsin-Green Bay is playing the tournament at home and will have a ton of fan support,” Abrahamson said. “UIC and Akron also have very good chances. If we can get on a roll and keep going, we should have a good chance of winning it all again.”