KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Geneva College softball team's season came to a close on Thursday afternoon to a familiar opponent.  The Golden Tornadoes lost in the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) World Series semifinals to No. 1 Concordia, 5-1, the fourth time in the past week Geneva has succumbed to the Cardinals.  Softball finishes its successful season with a 30-20 overall record.

These two teams entered their semifinal game very familiar with one another.  The two squads played twice last week in the NCCAA Midwest Regional, and the pair met up again two days ago on the opening day of the World Series, with Concordia winning all three prior games.

Sophomore Sophia Tvaroch got the start in the circle as she has done for every Geneva game during this World Series, and she was strong early, keeping the powerful Concordia offense under wraps.  Only a Golden Tornado error in the second allowed the Cardinals to push across a single run.

Freshman Molly Shelley kept the deficit at just one run with a standout defensive play in the bottom of the fourth.  Shelley made a running catch at full speed, reaching over the centerfield wall while crashing through the temporary fencing to rob a home run from Concordia's Maddy Greuter.

The Golden Tornadoes responded to Shelley's heroics in the next inning, with the offense stirring to life in the top of the fifth to pull even.  Freshman Kyra Wilcox singled with one out and went to second on a walk from Shelley.  After a batter was retired, senior Julia Hart singled up the middle with two outs to plate Wilcox and level the score at 1-1.

However, Concordia answered in the bottom of the inning.  Two more Geneva errors aided the Cardinals' offense, and Concordia's Faith Cramton delivered the damaging blow when her two-out drive cleared the centerfield fence for a three-run home run, giving the Cardinals a 5-1 advantage.

Geneva couldn't mount a response against Concordia ace Emilee Underwood, and the Cardinals finished off the game to advance to the championship game.

Tvaroch got a tough-luck loss with 4.2 innings of work.  Hart led the offense with two of Geneva's six hits, including the lone RBI.  Shelley was named to the NCCAA All-Tournament Team for her play over the past three days.

The loss wraps up a very good year that saw the Golden Tornadoes finish in a tie for first place in the regular season conference standings while advancing all the way to the NCCAA Semifinals in the postseason.  The encouraging thing is Geneva is slated to return most of its team next year to build upon this year's success.