Last season, the Iowa softball team started out stumbling, 2-16 with a 16-game losing streak. But the Hawkeyes stanched the bleeding, finishing with a 19-32 overall record and 9-14 in the Big Ten, which tied the squad with two teams for ninth.

So it wasn’t all bad for the Hawkeyes last season; after that rough start, they began April going 9-3

Iowa head coach Marla Looper attributes her team’s later success to the Hawkeyes’ “lack of quit.”

She hopes that they can take last season’s experience of success after failure and turn it into an entire season.

“When the chips were against us [last season], we continued to fight forward,” Looper said. “I’m proud of our young ladies to do that. Had we not gone through that, this year wouldn’t be as great as it can be. People who have been great in their sport haven’t been great because they just showed up, they’re great because they’ve failed and learned how to work through failure, and that’s what our team was able to do, and they’ll, hopefully, take those lessons into this year.”

Looper has focused on adding talent to the roster, this summer adding transfers Elizabeth Deshields from Marshall and Mackenzie Ihle from Indiana State.

Both transfers have had postseason experience, which Looper says will be crucial.

But she is not done there; as she has successfully done in the past, Looper hopes to pull some talent from the UI student pool.

The softball team will holding walk-on tryouts for any full-time students who wish to join the team.

“I think the biggest thing [we’re looking for] is someone who can bring something to us that we don’t already have,” Looper said. “If we got someone who is maybe a different type of hitter or a fielder that can elevate our program and elevate our game, they’d stand a good chance.”

Throughout her seven seasons at Iowa, Looper has had a lot of success with walk-ons.

Recent graduate, Kaitlyn (Chip) Mullarkey started 160 games after walking on as a freshman, and she is top-15 for the Hawkeyes in career home runs and doubles.

“We’ve had some great walk-ons in our program,” Looper said. “Chip Mullarkey, Michelle Zoeller, those walk-ons were very important to our program. They became three- or four-year starters for us, and they played a huge role. That’s our hope with these tryouts is that there’s someone on campus who’s not ready to give up the game and can come make a difference for our program.”

Once the summer concludes and Looper gets her roster fully assembled, her focus will be on the upcoming season — she hopes the season can be a trailblazer for more success in the future.