The first for the last. That’s what the summation of the Big 10 Women’s softball tournament really breaks down to; Northwestern beat Iowa 1-0 to win its first conference tournament crown, but it will be its only one for the immediate future, as the conference tournament is being disbanded as voted on by Big 10 coaches to extend the regular season, thus giving more of a chance to teams for NCAA seeding and placement.

It was a milestone game for winning pitcher Lauren Delaney, who not only pitched her third consecutive shutout in the tournament, but it also moved her to 34-8 on the season, breaking the team’s single season record for wins that had stood for almost a quarter century. Her first strikeout of the game was also her 400th of the season, again being the second pitcher to do that in Wildcat history–and the last time it was done was–yep, you guessed it–almost 25 years ago.

The win automatically qualifies Northwestern for big in the 2008 NCAA Tournament which will have its selection show this evening. With the way Delaney has been mowing hitters down and the dominance they have showed even offensively (they outscored opponents 21-0 in the conference tournament), Northwestern is hitting its stride at the key time and could make a deep run into the tourney.