SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — With her Senior Day softball game approaching on Friday, Jill Rizo of Dominican University of California is thinking back to the day she was a freshman in a similar situation.

She — along with fellow freshmen Kellie Hislop, Shawna Robb, and Jessi Saaty — were playing in their first senior week at Dominican, trying to help the Lady Penguins end the season on a winning note in a game against Holy Names University that they were on the verge of losing.

But a squeeze bunt drove in the winning run in extra innings and the Lady Penguins rejoiced. Rizo still remembers that day. It is fresh in her mind.

“None of us saw it coming,” Rizo says. “It was like one of those moments. It was so unexpected. It was such a great feeling to have our seniors leave on a high note.”

On Friday when Rizo and her three senior teammates play the last doubleheader of their Dominican softball careers, they hope to experience that same sort of bliss when they leave McInnis Park following their two games with Notre Dame de Namur University.  They have played 531 games between them for the Lady Penguins and handled hardships, developing a bond as friends that will last a lifetime.

“It's so strange. Knowing from where we started and how we are ending it, it's just drastically different,” Rizo says. “We've gone through a lot and it has been positive.”

For the versatile and hard-working Rizo, who has been actively involved in several Dominican leadership groups while playing two sports and six positions in softball for the Lady Penguins in her four years at the University, there have been moments to remember.

As a freshman out of Windsor High School, she led the team in runs, runs batted in, slugging percentage and on-base percentage when Dominican was a member of the NAIA. She hit the one and only home run in her career that year.

As a sophomore, when Dominican first became a member of the Pacific West Conference, Rizo recalls a rain storm on the Big Island of Hawai'i that threatened to delay their games against the University of Hawai'i, Hilo. As UHH coaches and players were trying to dry the field, Rizo and her teammates — in a goodwill gesture — pitched in and picked up sand bags and foam mattresses to literally sponge the diamond alongside the Hilo players.

“They were shocked,” Rizo says. “We heard later that no other team had helped them do that before.”

It also was during Rizo's sophomore year that she decided to help herself and her teammates by dropping her duties as a goalkeeper on the soccer team. She realized that trying to compete in two sports while pursuing her business administration marketing major with a minor in graphic art design was causing too many sleepless nights.

“It got to a point that everything felt more like a job and I felt like I didn't have enough time or energy to spread across two teams with working (part-time jobs) and academics,” Rizo says. “I felt I was cheating one of my two teams at any given time and I wanted to put the team first. They deserved better. I don't want to feel like I'm the weak link and I'm not always available when I should be.”

Rizo is all in with softball.  She caught just about every inning of her sophomore year but moved out from behind the plate last season when she was limited to playing in only 12 games. She had surgery on her right wrist and was in a cast for seven months.

This season, she has moved between first and third base yet she is prepared to play any position.

“I see it as an extra weapon to have,” says Rizo, who has started in all but two of the 130 games she has played for the Lady Penguins. “I want to play every second of every game wherever it is.”

But now Rizo is running out of the time. Her Dominican career comes to an end with Hislop, Robb, and Saaty this Friday. They feel their team has improved significantly under first-year head coach Roni Sparrey. In fact, Dominican's defense has cut in half its number of errors this season from last season.

“Putting so much work in and not seeing the results has been hard,” Rizo says. “The record and scores don't reflect how much better we are playing.”

Though Rizo and her three senior teammates are moving on, they represent the building blocks for a softball program they believe is on the rise. In the past few weeks, whether it's been in a team hotel room in Honolulu or on a bus ride from Turlock, the seniors have shared their experiences and a sense of achievement in the dedication and commitment they have put into the program and the support they have lent.

“We're here because of each other,” Rizo says. “We all have our high and low days.”

They are due for a high one. Rizo and her senior teammates hope their final season – and Dominican softball careers – end the same way the season ended for them as freshmen. With a win that they will never forget.