If the NIU softball team plans to return to the Lady Redbird Classic next year, the players will have a much different philosophy: losing is everything.

It seemed that losing gave the Huskies a winning advantage, citing their second-place trophy for a 1-4 tournament record.

The opening day of the round-robin tourney was the hardest for the Huskies. After losing 6-1 to host Illinois State, NIU went on to drop its next contest by the score of 2-0 to Iowa State.

On Saturday, the Huskies were still unable to post a win, falling 1-0 to Utah. Their 0-3 record placed the Huskies last in the field of four.

However, due to the method of bracketing in the tourney, the Huskies faced the 3-0 Lady Redbirds. NIU pulled out a 5-4 upset victory, to put the Huskies into the championship game against Utah.

In the semifinal contest with ISU, the Huskies got off to the same rough start they had encountered for most of the tourney.

After allowing three runs in the top of the first, the Huskies answered with three runs of their own, and led 4-3 after five. The Lady Redbirds tied the score in their half of the last inning, but after a single and two walks, Ree Zenner singled home the game winner.

But NIU was unable to keep its good fortune alive, dropping the final game 8-3.

The Huskies allowed only two runs in the first five innings. But the eventual champion Lady Utes held NIU scoreless through six.

The contest got out of hand for the Huskies in the top of the seventh when they allowed six runs to fall behind 8-0.

NIU managed to put three runs on the board in its half of the seventh, but it was too little too late as Utah had already had the game well in hand.

The tournament record of 1-4 dropped the Huskies’ overall record to 9-12 for the season.

NIU will play Thursday when the team hosts Indiana State.