SLIAC Softball: Westminster Leads Off with Titles
Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference spring sports history. Each week we examined the 30 years of SLIAC history, culminating with a send-off for SLIAC seniors in each spring sport. This week we will look at SLIAC softball, beginning with the 1990s.
While the SLIAC was formed in 1989 it did not hold its first softball championship until the spring of 1991. The decade of the 90s would be all about newly established programs quickly rising to the top of the league. We begin our story with Westminster College. Westminster College, who joined the league one year after the official formation of the conference, was not eligible to compete for the regular-season title that spring but was allowed in the tournament. After going 23-15 in the regular season the Blue Jays picked up two more wins in the SLIAC Tournament to capture the school's and conference's first-ever softball championship. They would follow with championships in each of the next two seasons, winning 64 games over the three-year stretch.
The Blue Jays lineup several all-time greats including Robyn McArthur and Morgan Cole. McArthur hit .393 while driving in 83 runs during her Blue Jay career from 1995-97 while Cole finished with a .364 average to go with 23 stolen bases from 1995-98. Both players still rank in the top three in career hits in program history and are top five in numerous other categories. The pitching staff was held down by the duo of Brenda Kroll and Holly Bryant, members of the 1992 and 1993 SLIAC Championship teams, who still rank first and second in career Earned-Run Average.
Maryville University broke the Blue Jays streak by capturing the 1994 championship, after winning the regular-season title with a 14-3 record. Fontbonne University took home their first title in program history the following spring when they won a conference record 18 games, going 24-8 overall.
Fontbonne was denied a chance at defending their title when the 1996 SLIAC Tournament was rained out. Fontbonne would have been the top seed in the tournament, having gone 11-1 during the regular season; edging out Greenville University for a regular-season title. Shortstop Kathy Donley sparked the Griffins during their two-year run, earning First Team All-Conference honors both seasons.
Newcomer Greenville, who joined the league in 1995, jumped right into the mix in softball; going 27-12 overall in its first season with the SLIAC. The Panthers would grab the title in 1997, winning the title as the #2 seed in the tournament with two shutouts over the weekend of play. They would also take home the league's first-ever SLIAC Player of the Year award when Beth Lunte won in 1997.
Webster University started up its softball program in 1997 and immediately followed suit by asserting itself. After winning just six games in its first season the Gorloks rolled off 30 or more wins in each of the next six years including closing out the decade with back-to-back SLIAC Tournament Championships in 1998 and 1999. Jeane Zes anchored the Gorlok pitching staff those two years and finished her career with a 48-11 record and a 1.37 earned-run average. She was named the SLIAC Player of the Year in 1998 while teammates Emily Biver (.388 average with 42 RBI) and Katie Maynard (.398 average and 27 RBI) split the honor the following season. The Gorloks became the first SLIAC program to reach NCAA Division III nationals, going in both 1998 and 1999, and won the league's first-ever game in nationals with a 4-0 win over Cortland State in the opening round of the 1999 tournament.
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