The Illinois softball players may be young, but they’re fast learners. After going 2-3 a weekend ago, the Illini went back on the road determined to prove they were better than their record.

They did just that at the Houston Marriott Classic, defeating No. 21 Houston and No. 24 Texas A&M; en route to a 5-0 weekend.

The two Illini victories against ranked opponents in one weekend marked a first in program history.

“Going into the tournament, we consistently said all week long at practice, ‘We’re going 5-0 in this tournament,'” senior catcher Lana Armstrong said.

“We knew we could and it was just really exciting to accomplish that goal as a team and come out undefeated.”

Playing in front of friends and family in her home state of Texas, Armstrong led the way for the Fighting Illini (10-4) against Texas A&M; on Sunday.

The senior drove in four runs, including a two-run homer in the sixth inning in a 5-4 Illinois victory.

The Aggies were the 2008 Women College World Series runner-up.

“I’m particularly proud and happy for Lana Armstrong. She just blocked everything behind the plate. She was a wall for us. And (she) also came up with some big offensive clutch hits for us,” head coach Terri Sullivan said.

“Obviously, delivering a big home run that we needed in the championship game against Texas A&M.; We felt it was going to take a few runs to really seal the deal and she did a great job.”

Armstrong was just happy to be back on the field after being out sick much of last weekend, and defeating the Aggies topped off her return.

“That’s the first time we’ve beaten them since I’ve been here and I’m a senior,” Armstrong said.

“On a personal level, it was a big win to stick it to a Texas team. But we came together as a team and it was a big, big, big team win.”

Illinois led 4-1 entering the seventh inning, but Texas A&M; tied it up on a three-run double by sophomore left fielder Kelsey Spittler to send the game into extra innings.

But Illini sophomore shortstop Ashley Conrad scored on an error by the Aggies in the top of the eighth, and freshman pitcher Monica Perry (6-3) got the final three outs in the bottom of the inning, stranding a Texas A&M; runner at third.

“This weekend I definitely feel like we had something to prove because the weekend in Florida kind of just left a bad taste in our mouths, and we wanted to come out here and get a bunch of wins and make up for last week,” Perry said.

“I feel like we did it.”

Sunday’s victory was the fifth win of the weekend for the Orange and Blue, who also defeated No. 21 Houston 12-11 in extras on Friday.

The comeback win against the Cougars was important for the young team’s confidence.

“The University of Houston game was huge for us, to finally put up that amount of runs on the board and have our offense explode,” Armstrong said.

“For us to come out and score 12 runs in that game, that was a huge, huge, huge step in the right direction for our team.

“Not to mention coming back,” Armstrong added.

“We finally showed we can come back and win a game.”

The Fighting Illini took care of business against their unranked opponents on the weekend as well, defeating McNeese State, Prairie View A&M; and Northern Illinois.

Something had to be working for them to go undefeated.

“To win a championship game and to beat two ranked teams this weekend was exciting, but we had to play well,” Sullivan said.

“We got a lot of different people that contributed and we’ll still keep working to get better and better.”