After a 7-6 comeback victory over No. 3 United States Coast Guard Academy on May 14 in the NCAA Division III Softball Tournament Regional championships at Wellesley College, the Judges found themselves trailing Coast Guard again two days later, this time in an elimination game.But Brandeis could not rally two days later, losing 4-1 to bring its historic season to a close. It was the first time in school history that the team advanced to the NCAA Tournament, and on Thursday, May 13 the Judges won the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament game in an 8-0 victory in five innings over No. 7 Endicott College.

The team went 2-2 in tournament, finishing its best-ever season with a final record of 29-9-1.

After losing to No. 1 Eastern Connecticut State University in the winner's bracket on May 15, Brandeis, which was seeded second, had to defeat Coast Guard in the loser's bracket to advance to the regional finals.

The team would have had to defeat Eastern Connecticut State twice in order to advance to the next round.

In the Judges' second game against Coast Guard, Brandeis got off to a 1-0 lead after first baseman Marianne Specker '12 singled against Bears sophomore starting pitcher Hayley Feindel and came around to score on three illegal pitches.

When an illegal pitch is called, the pitch is ruled a ball and all runners advance one base. Unlike during the regular season, the rule was strictly enforced in the NCAA Tournament.

But Coast Guard came back in the bottom of the inning, tying the game on an RBI single by senior third baseman Courtney Wolf. Wolf then hit a three-run home run in the next inning to chase Brandeis starting pitcher Emily Vaillette '10 from the game.

Reliever Allie Mussen '10 did not allow any runs, keeping Brandeis in the game, but the Judges could not muster any offense against Feindel.

Rookie catcher/designated player Stacy Berg '13, who led the team with 10 home runs and 43 RBIs this------- season, did not play in the elimination game.

"I wasn't hitting very well in the tournament, so my coach made the right decision to designate Lara [Hirschler] '12 as designated player, who ended up going 2-for-3 in the last game," said Berg. "She really produced for us."

Berg was 1-for-7 in the first three games of the tournament with the one hit coming in the first game against Endicott.

On May 15, the Judges also struggled against another of the region's toughest pitchers, sophomore Molly Rathbun of Eastern Connecticut State, who had a record of 27-1 record and a 0.61 ERA for the year.

In Eastern Connecicut State's 3-2 victory over Brandeis on Aprill 22, Rathbun pitched seven innnings, giving up three runs while striking out six batters.

Brandeis managed only one hit against Rathburn in the NCAA Tournament, which came off of Specker's bat.

The Warriors, on the other hand, were able to get seven runs and 11 hits against the Judges' pitching combination of Vaillette, Caroline Miller '12 and Mussen.

Coach Jessica Johnson removed Vaillette from the game after Vaillette gave up three runs in four innings.

Vaillette was replaced by Miller, who gave up three runs and four hits in the fifth inning before being replaced by Mussen in the sixth.

Berg explained the difficulties in facing both Feindel and Rathbun in the tournament, which saw Brandeis score only one run in its two losses against Coast Guard and Eastern Connecticut State.

"Both of the very good pitchers we faced in the tournament, [Feindel and Rathbun], were All-American, and it seemed like for the most part they had a handle on our hitting," Berg explained. "Both of the pitchers . were rise-ball pitchers, so I think it seemed difficult for us to lay off that and wait for the pitch that was really our pitch," she said.

Prior to that game, the Judges faced Coast Guard. The Judges trailed the entire game but stayed close thanks to 20 illegal pitches called by the umpire against Feindel.

Brandeis scored four of its first five runs on illegal pitches and trailed 6-5 going into the sixth inning despite producing only five hits.

Second baseman Melisa Cagar '11 then came through with perhaps the biggest hit of her career, a two-RBI single with two strikes to give the Judges their first lead of the game.

Miller, who had come into the game in the top of the sixth, closed it out in the seventh for the win.

In the first round of the tournament, the Judges defeated Endicott 8-0 in five innings in a game shortened by the mercy rule, their 12th mercy-rule win of the season.

Vaillette gave up just two hits in five innings of work with no walks and four strikeouts. It was her 16th win of the season.

The winning runs scored when left fielder Brittany Grimm '12 executed a successful suicide squeeze bunt to score Korp from third base.

With the season now over, the Judges have lost four seniors to graduation-Vaillette, Mussen, Korp, and catcher/designated player Erin Ross '10.

Vaillette is the program's all-time leader in ERA with a career average of 2.36 and in shutouts with a total of 10. She also leads Brandeis with 85 appearances and 67 stars.

She is second in wins with 39, innings pitched with 406.0 and strikeouts with 265.

Mussen finishes her Brandeis career with 16 wins and a school-best four saves.

Korp started a school-record 171 games in her career at Brandeis. She is second in school history in assists with 318 and at-bats with 514.

Ross is second in school history with 739 putouts, and she became just the second player in school history to earn All-University Athletic Association honors in four straight seasons.

Despite losing core members of this year's team, Berg believes that the team has the talent to win games next year and hopes to make the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season.

"It's going to be an adjustment [playing without the seniors next year], but I think that we're a talented enough group that hopefully it won't take us too long to be able to get back," Berg said. "Hopefully we'll be able to get to NCAAs again next year.