Friend and foe will merge into one when the Northwestern softball team travels to play Bradley in the final games of a two-month road trip.
Mikie Chambers, NU’s second baseman, will help lead the Wildcats (14-15) in a Sunday doubleheader against the Braves (15-16) and their star player, catcher Katie Kiss.
However, the games additionally will represent a childhood reunion for the two seniors. Both Chambers and Kiss hail from suburban Country Club Hills and played softball together as early as the age of 8.
“She was my best friend,” Chambers said. “We separated going into high school — I went to Hillcrest and she went to Marian — and we’ve always kept in contact. Our families are really close.”
As a result, the weekend doubleheader in Peoria will be a little more meaningful to Chambers than the average away game.
“I can’t wait to see her,” Chambers said. “It’s always fun when she’s catching to run on her. It’s always fun to do that kind of stuff, but we leave it on the field. We’ve always had a lot of competition between us, but we’ve always left it on the field and we’re still good friends.”
Chambers isn’t the only one who will have to deal with Kiss. NU’s pitchers — likely freshmen Lauren Schwendimann and Brie Brown — will have to be careful of Kiss’ bat.
Kiss currently leads the Bradley lineup with a .402 average. She hit .556 against St. Louis, Evansville and Southern Illinois last week.
NU can’t get caught up in reunions, though. The Cats will have a chance to go a game over .500 with a sweep of Bradley — and they’re very aware of it.
The Cats haven’t been over .500 since they were 4-3 on Feb. 18, and players and coaches alike seem to agree that getting into the black would be a big step.
“We’ve been working towards (.500),” senior first baseman Jenn Shull said. “It’s kind of been our goal ever since preseason started to be a .500 team at least. Coach (Sharon Drysdale) is pushing to be 16-15 after this weekend.”
Added Brooke Siebel: “I hate losing. Our record doesn’t say much about the way we’ve been playing lately. It’s more respectable as far as when other teams look at you when you have a winning record.”
With nine freshmen, NU’s upperclassmen think that a better record will help in fostering a winning attitude on the team. Even more important than the way other teams see the Cats is the team’s own psychological state.
“This is the most talented team that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Chambers said. “Without a doubt this is going to be the most successful team — we have a lot of fun together. For the team’s morale, it would be really nice to get back to .500.”
And winning five of their last six games would make reaching .500 better, too.
“Everybody plays to be above .500 and then of course you build on that,” Drysdale said. “And we were down by quite a bit and our struggle back has reflected the progress that our team has made from game to game.”
NU hopes to take advantage of a Bradley team that should be fairly worn down by the time it gets to Sunday. The Cats will be Bradley’s fourth doubleheader opponent in a week and their second in two days.
“We’ll know that they’ll be a little weak, or tired, at least. And we’ll be pretty fresh, having not played since Wednesday, ” Shull said. “If we get on top of them quickly, and then just build after that, we should be able to take a couple of games from them.”
