It is difficult to be disappointed with a 39-18 overall record, 18-3 conference mark, and winning the Big East regular season title.But for some of the DePaul softball players, who have high expectations year in and year out, a 9-1 loss to Illinois in the NCAA regional semifinals qualifies as an early exit.

“Winning the World Series is the ultimate goal,” said senior SS Brittney Yniguez. “I expected better [last season]. We had a great team, we had a great coaching staff.”

The top of that staff is Head Coach Eugene Lenti, who is 1,061-512-6 in his career. He began his 30th season last weekend in Miami, at the season-opening Florida International Classic.

And while he said the team’s goal is always to advance to the World Series, he was not disappointed in last season-only the team’s 1-3 start.

“We’re hoping to begin a little bit sharper,” he said, adding that they were stuck playing catch-up due to the poor start. “We want to be good right from the start.”

But overall, was the season a success? Lenti thinks so.

“Any time you win your conference regular season, it’s a successful year,” he said. “You have to be good week in and week out. All those other [tournaments] are just being hot that weekend.”

The team also suffered a number of injuries, including to pitchers Becca Heteniak and Lindsey Dean. They also lost their original starting catcher, who left the program in April.

“It’s kind of inevitable,” said senior outfielder Alex Morocco, of dealing with injuries. “We’re more prevention [focused] this year, so we hope to catch our injuries early.”

Now, the team comes into 2011 with goals the same as ever.

“Our first goal is always to win one game at a time,” Morocco said.

And after that?

“Regionals, Super Regionals, and then the World Series,” she said.

They are confident. But they have a right to be.

If everyone can stay on the field, the team should continue to hit for average. They did lose some power, however. They return three starting outfielders, a part-time catcher and most of their infield. The biggest offensive loss was Tara Voss, who hit .325 last season with a team-leading nine home runs, and started 56 games for the team.

But outfielders Sean Plese (.343, 0 HR, 10 RBI, 31 R) and Morocco (.335, 0 HR, 18 RBI, 31 R) should continue to hit for a high average.

Yniguez is the team’s leading power hitter returning-she hit seven home runs and knocked in a team-high 36 RBIs last year.

Even with solid offensive numbers, Morocco said pitching is “definitely” the team’s strength.

“We have a very diverse pitching staff,” she said. “Every pitcher has a different specialty pitch.”

Still, the team will also have a big hole to fill. Heteniak, who went 20-11 with a 1.84 ERA and 217 strikeouts in 186.2 innings pitched last season, is now gone after four years as the team’s anchor. Dean, who suffered a broken jaw and threw only 31.2 innings last year, will be one of two returning pitchers to make up that lost production. The other is sophomore Bree Brown. She was named Big East Conference Rookie of the Year last season after posting a 17-6 record with a 2.50 ERA.

“We have four pitchers on this staff,” Lenti said. “[Dean’s] gonna have to shoulder a big part of [the production lost from Heteniak], and the other three are all real solid pitchers.”

The group is also singing the praises of new assistant coach Nancy Evans, who was hired in August of 2010 to replace former coach Cat Osterman. Evans played on three NCAA Championship teams during her playing career at Arizona, and left college with a 124-8 career record-the best in NCAA history.

“We have a strong pitching staff right now with Nancy,” said Yniguez, who added that the pitchers are adding new pitches to their repertoire. “She’s a great pitching coach.”

Evans will also be working with two freshmen: Kirsten Verdun, a lefty from Coal City, Ill., who set the state record by going 40-0; and Hannah Penna, who went 19-8 with a 1.02 ERA for Southwest Miami High School and pitched for the Dominican Republic National Team in the 2010 World Championships.

“We have two really good freshmen,” Yniguez said. “It’s their first year, but I have a lot of confidence in them, that they’ll get better.”

The two newcomers will combine with the two carryovers to offer opponents a variety of throwers.

“It’s a good mix of different styles of pitching,” Lenti said, noting they had a lefty, righty and some power. “The four of them will be able to produce what the two of them did last year.