Wildcats Conclude Regular Season in Iowa City

5/4/2017 11:08:00 AM | Softball

NORTHWESTERN SOFTBALL: Iowa Series
DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	LOCATION	COVERAGE	LIVE STATS
Friday, May 5	Iowa	6 p.m. CT	Bob Pearl Field	BTN Plus ($)	Live Stats
Saturday, May 6	Iowa	2 p.m. CT	Bob Pearl Field	BTN Plus ($)	Live Stats
Sunday, May 7	Iowa	1 p.m. CT	Bob Pearl Field	BTN Plus ($)	Live Stats
Social: Twitter (@NUSBCats and @NU_SportsLive) \| Instagram (nusbcats) \| Facebook Game Notes: Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern travels to Iowa City this weekend to conclude the 2017 regular season against Iowa at Bob Pearl Softball Field. All three games will be streamed live on BTN Plus.

Friday's action gets underway at 6 p.m. CT, Saturday's game is at 2 p.m. CT and Sunday's first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT. This series marks the second time in the last three years Northwestern has been shipped to Iowa City to end the regular season; in 2015, the Wildcats took 2-of-3 games from the Hawkeyes to close the Big Ten schedule.

Northwestern enters this weekend following a doubleheader sweep of Illinois Wednesday at Sharon J. Drysdale Field. The Illini entered the game ranked third in the Big Ten and as the nation's No. 22 RPI team, but the Wildcats led nearly the entire afternoon in 7-4 and 4-3 victories.

NU and Iowa are both locked in a four-way tie for eighth place in the Big Ten at 8-12, one game out of sixth place in the conference. Northwestern has had one of the toughest if not the toughest B1G schedule in 2017, having played each of the top four teams in the conference standings including three-game road series at No. 1 Minnesota, No. 2 Michigan and No. 4 Nebraska. At home in league play, Northwestern compiled an 8-2 record including sweeps of No. 3 Illinois and Purdue.

This has played right into NU's typically strong national strength of schedule, which currently ranks as the No. 6 hardest nonconference slate in the nation.

For Iowa's part, the Hawkeyes also have played four of the top fives teams in the standings, missing only Michigan. Iowa swept a home doubleheader against Nebraska earlier in the season.

With six teams all within one game of sixth place in the standings, the final weekend will have much to say about seeding and schedules for the 2017 Big Ten Tournment May 11-13 in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Several Wildcats enter the final weekend absolutely scorching hot at the plate, led by senior Krista Williams and her .515 batting average over Northwestern's last 10 games. She has had seven multi-hit efforts over that time frame. Sabrina Rabin has an active 10-game hitting streak—her second double-digit streak of the season—and Marissa Panko is hitting .583 in NU's last five contests.

That three-slapper "Conehead Line" as they are known in Northwestern Softball lexicon are not having all of the fun; sophomore Morgan Nelson has found another late-season surge and is batting .571 (8-for-14) with six RBIs and four doubles in NU's last five games. As a freshman, Nelson led NU with a .383 batting average in the second half of the 2016 season, and seems to be finding that stroke again late in 2017.