LEXINGTON, Ky. — The guarantee Nicole Evans made Saturday night didn’t come to fruition.
But the confident and competitive nature the Illinois softball team displayed all season was present, all the way up to the last out of Sunday’s 4-2 season-ending loss to Kentucky.
The defeat at John Cropp Stadium in the NCAA regional final sees the host Wildcats (40-17) continue on into next week’s NCAA super-regional, while the Illini’s quest to reach that coveted stage of the NCAA tournament will have to wait.
“We expect to go further every time we’re playing,” Evans said. “To bring this team from where we were, talking about my freshman and sophomore year, we didn’t even make postseason.