The Dowling College Softball team ended their season with a 34-20 overall record, a great overall improvement from their 27-30 2008 record. The Golden Lions 15-3 conference record earned them the East Coast Conference regular season title. The squad had several players earn accolades this season.
Keri Boystak (Lindenhurst, NY) earned 2nd team ECC honors for her play roaming centerfield this season.
Kristina DeMeo (Bayshore, NY) earned 3rd team ECC for her clutch hitting and team leading .371 batting average in the 2009 campaign.
Jamie Stalter (Bohemia, NY) accepted the challenges and made the most of her early opportunties to develop into an end of the year standout for the Golden Lions.
Jamie's 9-1 record was best on the team along with her 1.77 era which earned her ECC 3rd team honors. The two heavy lifters, also know as the Smash Sisters, in Dowling's offensive attack were senior
Jackie Hannan (Sayville, NY) and
Emily Slack (East Islip, NY). Their was no doubt of the opposing pitchers' fear of
Hannan as she hit 18 roundtrippers this season which set a new Dowling College single season record.
Slack did her part contributing 13 homeruns and a .329 average.
Hannan took home ECC 1st team honors along with Daktronics Northeast Region 1st team and NFCA East Region 1st team honors.
Slack was named to the ECC 1st team, Daktronics Northeast Region 2nd team and NFCA East Region 1st team.
The Softball season began with a rocky start, going 3-9 on their Spring Trip to Florida. However, of those 9 early losses 8 of them were by 1 run. After returning to the Northeast Dowling hit their stride winning six straight and 17-3 from March 18th to April 7th including 4 wins in the Georgian Court Tournament. Over the five games in the tournament
Jackie Hannan hit an astounding 4 homeruns. The Golden Lions continued their excellant play closing out the regular season with 5 straight victories over conference foes NYIT, STAC and Mercy that locked up the regular season title for Dowling.
Dowling earned a #1 seed to the ECC tournament but was eliminated from the Conference tournament in the semi-finals by the NYIT Bears, but recieved an at large bid to the NCAA Regionals as a #5 seed. The Golden Lions advanced to the semi-finals in the regional tournament, but were eliminated by Caldwell, 6-7. Dowling trailed the Cougars 6-1 after 4 and a half innings, but an unbelievable 5 run 5th, powered by homeruns from
Stephanie Compitello (Bohemia, NY) and
Jackie Hannan knotted the game at 6. The game lasted until the 11th inning when Caldwell pushed across the eventual game winning run ending an amazing Golden Lion season.