When Louie Berndt took over as head coach of the Monmouth University (MU) women’s softball team prior to the season, there was certain buzz surrounding the future of the program. Apparently, the future is now.

Following a 30-18 season that included a trip to the Northeast Conference Tournament (NEC) finals, the Hawks have emerged as one of the conference’s stronger teams. And with just two players graduating, there’s reason to believe MU will be back in the title hunt next season.

Granted, the graduating seniors — catcher Jessica Nicola (of Sayreville) and second baseman Alexa Ferrara (of West Caldwell) — will be sorely missed. In addition to serving as the team leaders for a relatively young squad, Nicola and Ferrara 62 RBIs combined (31 each) and 56 runs scored. Ferrara was also one of two Hawks to earn First Team All-NEC honors, along with junior outfielder Emily de- Long. Both players were also all-conference picks in 2009.

While the Hawks will return plenty of firepower next season, Berndt knows that the leadership provided by her two departing seniors will be difficult to replace.

“Jess was our general on the field and controlled a very young infield and the pitching staff,” the coach said. “She [came] up with key hits and [did] a great job calling the game. Lex is a workhorse who is a solid infielder.

“Between the two of them and their leadership and hard work, they have raised the bar for the young kids to come out and play hard,” added Berndt. “It is going to be hard to replace those two.”

While deLong was certainly the Hawks’ premier offensive player, hitting .348 with eight home runs, Monmouth had a quartet of newcomers who proved to be ready for the collegiate level. Freshman first baseman Kayle Weiser (of Vandergrift, Pa.) ranked third on the team with a .325 batting average and led the way with 34 RBIs. Colts Neck High School’s Kate Kuzma came up big in some key spots, driving home 19 runs on the year while playing a solid third base, while another freshman, shortstop Tish Derer (of Philadelphia), came on particularly strong in postseason play, hitting .444 in tournament play. Freshman left-fielder Christine Scherr (of Nazareth, Pa.) was also key in the Hawks’ emergence, scoring 38 runs out of the leadoff spot. Both Scherr and Kuzma earned Akadema/NEC Rookie of the Week honors this season.

The Hawks’ pitching staff got stronger as the year went on as well, with junior Melissa Mehrer (of Florence) winning 16 games this year (good enough for Second Team All-NEC honors) and sophomore Lauren Sulick (of Canfield, Ohio) winning 14 and proving to be a big-game pitcher down the stretch, earning her a NEC All- Tournament Team selection. With both hurlers returning next season, MU will be among the better pitching teams in the conference once again.

A closer look at the Hawks’ 2010 campaign illustrates just how much the team progressed under Berndt’s tutelage. The season began rather inauspiciously, with the Hawks losing seven of eight games in a Texas trip that saw them get outscored 62-20. However, whatever lessons they learned during that trip certainly paid dividends, as MU returned to New Jersey a vastly better team.

“Texas was a huge learning process for all,” said Nicola. “We were learning how to play with each other; some of us were learning how to play other positions and others were just getting a feel for how the person next to them played.”

The results spoke for themselves. Monmouth went on to post a 27-9 mark, including a gaudy 14-3 record on the road. In addition, their 15-4 mark in conference play was the third highest single-season league win total in program history.

One of the more balanced teams in the NEC (Monmouth hit .291 as a team and pitched to a 2.35 ERA with seven shutouts), MU simply got better as the season wore on, making them a serious threat to win the NEC Tournament crown.

This year’s run at a conference title ended in the tournament final. After beating third-seeded Quinnipiac, 6-0, in their opener, the Hawks then lost to top-seeded Long Island University (LIU), 7-2. They bounced back with a 5-4 win over Robert Morris, as deLong led the way with a three-run home run (her second roundtripper of the tournament) that put the Hawks on top for good. Sulick got the win for MU, improving to 14-6 on the year.

That earned Monmouth a spot in the final game for the first time since 2001. But once again, they faced an LIU team that simply had their number, losing a 6-2 affair, despite playing the host team even through six innings.

With the score tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh, LIU’s Brynn Lewis launched a three-run home run, only to be followed by another dinger from Raylene Asman. Those home runs proved to be the difference, and the end to Monmouth’s season.

Despite falling a win short of a championship, the Hawks had every reason to be excited about their 2010 season. When MU takes the field next spring, they will be anxious to pick up where they left off, and chase down that elusive NEC crown.

Berndt came to Monmouth with the expectation of building a championshiplevel team that would challenge for the conference title on a yearly basis. There were plenty of people that believed she would be successful in that regard. But there couldn’t have been too many that expected it to happen so soon.