SAN MARCOS, Texas – Saluki Softball freshman pitcher Maddia Groff had quite the debut on Friday.  In her first collegiate game, the lefthander made history by tossing the first seven-inning perfect game in school history, as Southern Illinois blanked Creighton, 3-0, on Friday.

The Omaha, Nebraska native retired all 21 batters she faced, with eight strikeouts, for the sixth perfect game in school history. The previous five were completed in less than seven innings, however, with the most recent SIU perfect game a five-inning blanking of Butler by Brianna Jones in 2019.

The no-hitter by Groff was the 34th in school history and the first by a Saluki hurler since Madi Eberle threw a five-inning no-hitter versus IPFW in 2022.

Southern got all the runs it needed in the first inning when Rylie Hamilton doubled home Elizabeth Warwick, and Addi Baker hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Jackie Lis. Lis added a solo home run in the third.