In its constant quest to earn national respect and gain an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament, the North Star Conference has turned its volume up a notch in order to be heard. A notch? Maybe even two. Behind the new leadership of Commissioner Arnold...

There's a new dog in town, there are new scoreboards in the fieldhouse and there's a new look for NIU athletics. The most recent step in the upgrading of the NIU athletic program was the installment of two new scoreboards and a new scorer's table at Chick...

It looks as if NIU might soon be playing baseball again on Huskie Diamond. The diamond, which is located northwest of Huskie Stadium, has been used only by the softball team since the university dropped its baseball program in 1982. But Athletic Director...

At the end of the 1989 NIU softball season Julie Sexton had only one home run among her hit totals. Four months later Sexton came through with three home runs over five games to lead the Huskies to the championship of the Illinois Central College Tournament...

Scoring runs wins ballgames. But the NIU softball team's one run in 28 innings of play over the weekend left the Huskies winless in their own tournament. Illinois State and Wisconsin-Parkside played the role of spoiler for NIU. The Redbirds claimed the...

Fall softball is underway for the NIU contingent this weekend. Head softball coach Dee Abrahamson and her team will play host to the Huskie Invitational tourney, which will be played on both Saturday (Sept. 16) and Sunday (Sept. 17) at Huskie Diamond....

Although NCAA officials did not give the NIU softball team a 1989 national tournament bid, the season's final statistics indicate the Huskies might have belonged. The Huskies, whose 38-7 record was the fourth-best in the country, ranked among the nation's...

Athletic Director Gerald O'Dell, using words like "deplorable," "embarrassment" and "anitquated" to describe the condition of Huskie Stadium, said Friday NIU is considering a renovation of the 24-year-old structure. The university recently invited four...

Before NIU and Akron can win their first Association of Mid-Continent Universities title, they will have to battle a Bear. The Bears of Southwest Missouri State have become the AMCU's conference power, winning the league's all-sport trophy the past three...

To no one's surprise, outfielder Jill Justin and pitcher Beth Schrader were named the NIU softball team's 1989 Most Valuable Players. Justin won the offensive MVP award by leading the team with a .443 batting average. She won the squad's batting crown...

The Huskies waited, but the call never came. After cruising through its 1989 schedule and posting one of the top records in the country, the NIU softball team failed to receive its second consecutive berth in the NCAA College World Series. The Huskies,...

Despite being a member of the North Star Conference for only two years, the NIU women's sports program has established itself as a league powerhouse. By winning two NSC crowns and finishing second in two other sports, NIU claimed the 1988-89 NSC All-Sports...