CHICAGO, Ill. -- The Vikings softball team was held scoreless in Friday's afternoon double-header against the CCIW's current top seed, the Millikin Big Blue. The Vikings move to the fourth spot in conference at a 5-3 record, though their mark of 5 conference wins is second in the CCIW, trailing only the Big Blue. 

Starting pitchers Maya Lafnear and Alyssa Malicki combined to allow just 6 ER and 13 hits across 13.0 IP, but the Millikin staff had every answer for North Park's offense to keep them off the board in both contests. They held the Vikings to only 5 hits total on the day, allowing just 1 hit in Game 2 that came off the bat of Emily Reczek in the 2^nd inning. Reczek also collected a hit in Game 1 to make her the only player on NPU to tally multiple hits on the day. Meanwhile, Isa Santos marked a triple for the Vikings' lone XBH.  

Despite the down day for the Vikings' bats, the defense came through with multiple big plays across both games and made no errors in Game 2. Santos—playing RF to accommodate Brigid Early in the lineup—barreled into the RF fence to make an inning-ending out in Game 1, and she added two outfield assists on the day that each resulted in double plays. One of them saw her make a diving catch before throwing out the CCIW steals leader Rylee Blake on her way back to first. Opposite of her in LF, Early made numerous difficult running catches as well. SS Kayla Lorenz had a diving catch of her own in the infield, and she worked with Maddy Tan for a 6-4 double play in Game 1 to make it a total of 3 double plays on the day for the NPU defense.

What's Next 

North Park's double header on Sunday, April 16^th against Augustana has been postponed due to expected weather. The Vikings have all of the next week to potentially make that game up before a contest with Elmhurst on April 25^th.