Newport News, Va. – For the sixth straight year, the five-time defending Atlantic 10 champion Fordham softball team has been selected by the league's head coaches to successfully defend its title, it was announced on Wednesday afternoon.
"We are excited to be chosen atop the conference standings and now the hard work continues for us to stay there," Head coach
Bridget Orchard said, "I always tell our players that it's not where you start but where you finish that matters. It does give them a lot of confidence, though, that the other A-10 coaches believe we are going to be number one."
Fordham garnered nine first-place votes and 99 points. Last year's runner-up Massachusetts received the final first-place vote and 86 total points, followed by Dayton (74), Saint Joseph's (67), and George Washington (58). The bottom half of the poll has George Mason (53), Saint Louis (48), Rhode Island (28), La Salle (23), and St. Bonaventure (14).
The Rams finished the 2017 campaign with its fifth consecutive Atlantic 10 championship and second straight regular season title, posting the program's second-most victories, 46, and tying the 2016 squad for a record 18 conference wins. Led by reigning A-10 Co-Pitcher of the Year
Lauren Quense and Player of the Year runner-up
Madi Shaw, the 2018 Rams will look to pick up a sixth consecutive title and trip to the NCAA Regionals despite dealing with a large turnover, losing eight players, including six starters.
Among those lost are 2017 A-10 First Teamers
Sydney Canessa and
Jessica Hughes, Second Team honoree
Lindsay Mayer, and 2014-16 All-Conference choice
Amy Van Hoven. Canessa and Hughes were also All-Mid Atlantic selections and ECAC All-Stars a year ago. Last year's squad set program records in team batting average, RBIs, runs, total bases, walks, and on-base percentage, plus single-game records of runs, RBIs, and walks.
Among those returning are Quense, Shaw, First Team selection
Skylar Johnston, and All-Rookie honoree
Madie Aughinbaugh. Quense, who became the fifth Ram to ever throw a no-hitter last spring, enters the season within the top-five of several all-time pitching categories at Fordham and just outside in two others. The graduate student finished her senior campaign with a 22-11 record, 2.49 ERA, 18 complete games, and four shutouts across 208.1 innings. Shaw broke the school's single-season RBI record in Salt Lake City, finishing with 74 runs driven in, part of a record 21 multi-RBI games during her junior season. Shaw's .385 batting average and 70 hits at year's end ranked sixth and fifth, all-time, while becoming just the third Ram to hit 15 home runs and fourth to tally 130 total bases or more.
Johnston, a two-time Rookie of the Week, earned her debut First Team nod with a scorching hot conference season, batting a league-high .491/.554/.614 with a team-high 28 hits, seven doubles, 16 RBIs, and an 8/3 walk-to-strikeout ratio. Aughinbaugh, a two-time Rookie of the Week and once Pitcher of the Week, finished her freshman campaign with a 2.16 ERA across 29 appearances, 19 starts, with 10 complete games, three shutouts, and an overall 16-5 record. At the plate, the Port Tobacco, Md. native hit .294 with 25 hits, 17 runs scored, and 10 stolen bases. She recorded the game-winning RBI double to secure the team's fifth straight title last May while hurling nine complete innings with just one unearned run allowed.
Orchard enters her 20
th season as a head coach with a 720-397-3 career record, 16 of which have come in the Bronx. She is 40
th among active coaches in career victories, but is just one of five coaches among that group that have been coaching for just 20 years or fewer. Orchard is 50
th all-time, among all coaches, by win percentage, at .644.
The Rams begin their 2018 campaign at #5/4 UCLA next Thursday at 9 p.m. EST before competing in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, which features a rematch with #15/16 Utah, schools receiving votes in both national polls California and Arkansas, and an exhibition date with Team Japan, three-time world champions and current top-ranked country in the world.
| School |
First Place Votes |
| Fordham |
99 (9) |
| Massachusetts |
86 (1) |
| Dayton |
74 |
| Saint Joseph's |
67 |
| George Washington |
58 |
| George Mason |
53 |
| Saint Louis |
48 |
| Rhode Island |
28 |
| La Salle |
23 |
| St. Bonaventure |
14 |
