May 5, 2009

River Forest, IL - The Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) announced the postseason softball awards on Monday with Dominican University's Cristina Lukas claiming the conference's Coach of the Year honor. Lukas led the Stars to a 30-14 mark overall and a fourth place finish in the conference with a 16-8 record after posting a 14-23 mark one year ago and a tenth place finish in the NAC.

Lukas guided the Stars to within one game of the program's first-ever trip to the NCAA Division III Softball National Tournament as the Stars won four games in the NAC Softball Tournament before falling in the NAC Tournament Championship game to the Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons. Coming to Dominican University in 2006, Lukas inherited a team fresh off a 3-34 season and in three seasons has completely rewritten the Dominican softball record books. This season, the Stars set team-high marks in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs scored, hits, doubles, home runs, stolen bases, earned run average and wins.