By Hawk Fanatic

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa softball team, under first-year head coach Stacy May-Johnson, saw its season end on Sunday with a 7-5 loss to Purdue at Bob Pearl Field.

After winning the first game in the series 8-7 on Friday, Iowa dropped the final two games, and those two losses would prove costly as Iowa finished in 13th place in the Big Ten standings at 7-17, and one win short of making the Big Ten Tournament, which consists of the top 12 teams in the conference standings.

“It’s a tough way to end the season like this, but those seniors left this program in a great place,” May-Johnson said to the Daily Iowan.

Iowa honored its five seniors on Sunday, but it was bittersweet as the seniors won’t get to play in the postseason.

“We battled, there was no quit in this team,” May-Johnson said. “This is a resilient group, we just came up a bit short.” head coach, May-Johnson said. “All five of our seniors have made us all so proud. The legacy they are leaving is tremendous. They have left this program better than they found it. This is an incredibly selfless group and have set an amazing example for the underclassmen. The Black and Gold is here to stay and it starts here, with that group.”

Iowa entered this past weekend tied with Minnesota for the 12th and final spot in the Big Ten tournament; though the Golden Gophers had the tiebreaker on their side with their series win over Iowa earlier this season.

Both teams split the first two games in their series this past weekend, which meant that Iowa had to win on Sunday to make the conference tournament.