WASHINGTON, D.C. | While NIU’s students were on spring break, its softball players were hardly relaxing.

The NIU softball team (8-9) played eight games over the break. Entering in the road trip, the Huskies had only played nine games, winning five.

NIU’s first stop was the University of South Florida for the Adidas Invitational.

A lack of offensive production proved to be a reason for the Huskies leaving the invitational with only one victory in six tries. Although the Huskies held their competition to four or less runs in all six games, they were only able to produce a total of seven runs in those games.

NIU suffered three consecutive losses to start the invitational, losing to the University of Illinois-Chicago, Georgia Tech and Tennessee Tech.

The bats came alive in the afternoon session of the second day, as NIU defeated Indiana 5-2. However, the Huskies were unable to keep the same attack going into day three, as they lost to both the University of Massachusetts and USF, 2-0.

“We had our opportunities to win,” said NIU head coach Donna Martin. “We just didn’t get it done as far as getting the ball in play when we had runners on base.”

NIU wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Leaving Florida, the Huskies headed north to the Washington, D.C. area to play a double header with Towson University. It was there that the Huskies tamed the Tigers in both games, posting victories of 6-3 and 10-0.

Kristen McPherson, Krysten Sendejas, Randi Kreiter and Ellen Stoddard provided a majority of the offensive lift for NIU. The four were a combined 16-for-26 from the plate in the double header.

“The first three batters all had a good day, which results in lots of runs,” Martin said. “We had a few people bust out of slumps.”

NIU didn’t get a chance to extend its slump busting, though, as its final games against Maryland and Georgetown were cancelled due to weather.