Panthers split opening day of the 2025 Doc Halverson Classic

Friday, February 7

Cedar Falls, Iowa

3 p.m.

University of Northern Iowa

1-0

North Dakota

0-2

North Dakota

Northern Iowa

Photo by: Bell Rogers

Panthers split opening day of the 2025 Doc Halverson Classic

2/7/2025 8:51:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Final Stats (UND)Final Stats (UNO)Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

UNI softball finished day one of the Doc Halverson Classic after a victory over UND and a loss to UNO.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — UNI softball opened the 2025 season inside the UNI-Dome with the 2025 Doc Halverson Classic. The Panthers competed in a pair of wire-to-wire matchups and took home a 1-0 victory in game one against the Fighting Hawks of North Dakota before falling to the Mavericks of Omaha in a heavily offensive matchup by a score of 13-10.

GAME 1 | UNI 1, UND 0

UNI opened the 2025 Doc Halverson UNI-Dome Classic against the North Dakota Fighting Hawks. Anna Wischnowski opened the season in the circle for the Panthers and went to work right away, recording two strikeouts on the top of the first, an inning that saw just three batters. UNI left two runners in scoring position in their half of the inning to remain scoreless through one. The second inning saw no damage on either front before the Fighting Hawks began to knock on the door with runners on second and third with no outs. Three straight outs from UND got the Panthers out of the jam.

Kylee Sanders got the Cats on the board in the bottom of the third inning as she drove in Skylar Benesh on a single down the right-field line. This was the lone score of the matchup as UNI took home a 1-0 victory over North Dakota in game one of the Classic.

Skylar Benesh and Addison McElrath both were 2-for-2 against the Fighting Hawks. Anna Wischnowski recorded six strikeouts in the outing.

GAME 2 | UNO 13, UNI 10

The Mavericks came out hot in the first inning with a pair of runs to take a 2-0 lead early in the matchup. The Cats responded with four runs of their own to take a 4-2 lead. Kate Lappe hit UNI's first homerun of the season on a three-run shot. A trio of runs from Omaha gave the Mavericks a 5-4 lead before they tacked on another run off a homerun to take a 604 lead after 2.5 innings.

After a Kylee Sanders walk, Addison McElrath knocked a two-run homerun to tie the ballgame at six before a three-run homerun from McElrath in the fourth inning gave the Cats a 9-6 lead. The Mavericks tied the game in the top of the sixth inning with three runs before a four-run top of the seventh gave the visiting team a 13-9 lead. The Cats looked to claw back in the bottom of the seventh and scored one run off a hit from McElrath that drove in Makenna Kuper. The Panthers were stifled with runners in scoring position and the Mavericks took home a 13-10 victory.

UNI finished the game with eight hits. McElrath finished with three hits and six RBIs while Kate Lappe added two more hits. Morgan Vertz finished with three strikeouts in her first collegiate appearance in the circle.

UP NEXT

The Panthers continue the Doc Halverson Classic on Saturday with a pair of matchups on February 8 inside the UNI-Dome. UNI takes on the Ramblers of Loyola-Chicago at 2 p.m. CT and the Fighting Hawks of North Dakota at 4:30 p.m. on day two.