The paper cups in the chain-link fence spelled out abbreviated names.

COR MAK LEX MEG

But they told just part of the story.

Officially, it was senior day in Laie for Brigham Young-Hawaii softball players Corallee Alexander, Makaela Williamson, Alexa Barrett and Meghan Wantz.

In the standings, it was just two sub-.500 teams in the PacWest finishing out the schedule with a doubleheader. Chaminade won the first game 7-1, as Maureen Hutchinson and Luana Moreno both paired hits.

But, in reality, it was senior day for all Seasiders — of all sports, past and present.

Yes, the men’s golf and women’s tennis team still have regionals and nationals in which to compete in the upcoming days. But this was the final home event for intercollegiate athletics at the North Shore college.

Not just for the year, but forever.

Well, there’s still talk and hope about a revival at some point.

No one is holding their breath, though.

The university’s administration decided to cut intercollegiate athletics three years ago as a cost-cutting move. And those three years included pleas for a stay of execution that went unheeded.

This was it.

BYUH softball has never been what you would call a powerhouse. As usual, this year’s team lost more games than it won, but when coach Lominga Latu calls them “a special group,” it really means something.

They lost 30 games. But they won 13, the most since 2007.

Among this year’s victories were upsets of PacWest Conference powerhouses Dixie State and Azusa Pacific — and, even bigger than those, a 2-1 nail-biter over Chaminade on Saturday on their sunny and dusty field hidden behind the student housing on the BYUH campus.

And that’s all, folks.

“It’s a sad day,” said Chaminade coach Kent Yamaguchi. “We’re losing a good opponent and a classy team.”

There’s no championship for this Seasiders squad. But is there any better legacy than defending your campus home field when the final out is, indeed, the final out?

That last assist was made by Barrett at second, after she stopped a smash from going into right field.

“When I fell and made that play, I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

Maybe less believable is that Barrett and her teammates kept coming back to BYUH every year. … Every year, when they knew it would be harder and harder for the Seasiders to recruit and retain players.

For some, it was about their religion. For Barrett, it was a different kind of faith.

“Alexa’s not a member of our (Latter Day Saints) church,” Latu said. “But every year she came back.”

She and her teammates never gave up, even though their own school did.

Then there’s Liz Talataina, and the aching back she injured Tuesday. She hit the first-inning two-run homer that was all Wantz would need while pitching a five-hitter.

She’s another one who kept returning to Laie when no one would’ve blamed her for bailing out.

“I actually signed just a month before the announcement was made,” said the junior from Huntington Beach, Calif. “But I decided to come and see where it would take me. And then it was, ‘I’m gonna stay and see it through.’ It feels great to end on a good note.”

Unless we’re talking about a few Division I athletic programs that rain money on their schools, debates will go on forever whether college sports are worth the expense — if they are an effective marketing tool for the entire university, or just a drain on its resources.

David Porter, BYUH’s legendary tennis coach, says it’s the former.

“I think athletics is an important part of a college experience, whether you’re an athlete or student not playing sports,” said Porter, who came to Laie as an assistant basketball coach in 1982 and became the winningest tennis coach in NCAA history. “It’s the best way to develop esprit de corps. It will be missed, and the overall experience will be different.”

Porter, a full professor, will remain at BYUH teaching in and running the school’s sports science department. He said he will continue to make annual trips to China and New Hampshire for coaching clinics.

Latu was a longtime Seasiders assistant before becoming the head coach this year, and is retired from the Plumbers and Fitters Union. He hopes maybe there will be another BYUH softball team for him to coach — not for his sake, but for that of future student-athletes.

“This is an extension of their classroom,” he said. “What they learn out here you can’t teach them in a building. Pulling for one another, fighting for one another. One day these kids will interview for jobs and it won’t be fair for the other applicants. If everything else is equal, they will have the advantage because employers know about student-athletes, that they have to keep up their grades and work to win every day in practice and win every day in the weight room.”

The memories over the many decades include national volleyball championships and thrilling basketball teams that came oh-so-close. And, of course, Porter’s dominant tennis squads.

Add to that a softball team with a losing record, that saved its best for last and won on its home field when it counted most. As things stand, it’s the last chance any Seasiders will have ever had to defend their own turf, and these young women did it successfully.