The Case Western Reserve University softball team will be looking to build off a historic 2024 season when the 2025 campaign begins on Friday with a pair of games at the NFCA Division III Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Georgia.
Last season, the Spartans set a program record with 40 wins, posting a 40-9 overall mark. The team reached the finals of the NCAA Championship for just the second time in program history, placing seventh in the country, and won its third consecutive University Athletic Association championship with a 16-4 record in conference play.
Heading into 2025, CWRU is ranked seventh by the NFCA in its initial Top 25 Coaches Poll, the team's highest preseason ranking ever. The Spartans return 13 players from last year's roster including two-time All-American Lexi Miskey, UAA Rookie of the Year Karen Potts, three-time All-UAA infielder KaiLi Gross, three-time All-Region pitcher Kylie Hosey, and All-UAA infielders Isabella Russo and Elizabeth Berry.
Six new players will join the squad for 2025: infielder Bella Hunter, outfielders Laura Meoli and Ashley Miller, infielder/outfielder Kate Coonan, and catchers Riley Williams and Lacey Laura.
Pitchers
Miskey, returning for her final season, will be looking to cement her legacy as a senior. The three-time UAA Pitcher of the Year holds program records for career wins (65), strikeouts (615), earned run average (1.71), and batting average against (.176). Last season, she broke her own program records for strikeouts and wins, going 26-6 with a 2.11 ERA and 249 strikeouts in 192 innings.
Hosey, a two-time All-UAA selection in addition to her All-Region honors, ranks second in program history in career ERA (2.21), third in batting average against (.237) and saves (four), and ninth in strikeouts (215). Last season, she lost just one game in the circle, going 13-1 in 80 and one-third innings with a 2.88 ERA.
Rounding out the rotation is junior Devanghi Misra, who went 1-1 last season with a 3.73 ERA in 15 innings across 10 appearances. Meoli, who was both a pitcher and utility player in high school, may also see time in the circle.
Infielders
Potts and Gross started every game up the middle for the Spartans last season, providing constant production at the top of the lineup. Potts began her career with a 15-game hitting streak and did not stop hitting for the Spartans during her debut season, tying for the team lead with 67 hits in 160 at-bats for a .419 average. Gross was the team's best hitter during the 2024 season, leading the squad in batting average (.429), hits (67), doubles (19), home runs (nine), runs batted in (63), slugging percentage (.763), and OPS (1.217). Her RBI, doubles, and sacrifice fly totals set single-season program records, and she broke program records for career triples (13), stolen bases (88), total bases (337), and sacrifice flies (10). She ended the year with 196 hits, 23 home runs, 131 runs scored, 131 runs batted in, and a .401 batting average for her career.
At the corners, Berry and Russo continued solid careers for CWRU. Berry, a junior this year, appeared in every game and started all but one contest at the hot corner, collecting 43 hits in 137 at-bats, slugging seven doubles, scoring 22 runs, and contributing 30 runs batted in. Russo, a senior in 2025, has a .342 career batting average, .502 slugging percentage, and 107 hits in 109 games for the Spartans.
In her first season with the team, sophomore Kaelyn Zusi, another option at the corners, appeared in 19 games and drove in six runs. Hunter and Coonan will also look for opportunities in the dirt in their first seasons at CWRU.
Outfielders
Two of the team's starting outfielders graduated, giving more opportunities for Case Western Reserve's three returning players and three new outfielders. Sophomore Nylah Durham appeared in every game last season in right field and will likely make the shift to center field in her second season. Sophomore Alaina Steffes, a corner outfielder and catcher, recorded a .333 batting average, .434 on-base percentage, and .556 slugging percentage in 63 at-bats during her first year with the Spartans. Junior Tara Fritscher, the most veteran of the returning outfielders, has appeared in 38 career games.
Coonan, Meoli, and Miller will look to see action on the grass in their first seasons with the team.
Catchers
Senior Katelyn Lamm leads the catching contingent after appearing in 49 games as a junior and making 47 starts behind the dish. She hit .259 last season with four home runs and 18 runs batted in, while catching seven runners attempting to steal across 35 opportunities. Senior Abbey Rzeszutko, who has 37 appearances across four seasons with the team, will see time behind the plate as a defensive specialist.
In addition, Williams and Lara could see opportunities to catch the Spartan pitching staff in 2025.
Coaching Staff
Head Coach Josie Henry, the winningest coach in program history with a career record of 371-179, returns for her 15th season at the helm of the team. Henry's teams have won four conference championships and appeared in four NCAA Tournaments over the last 10 seasons. She has earned UAA Coaching Staff of the Year honors four times and mentored five All-Americans.
Assistant Coach Giselle Bahena returns for her second season in the Spartan dugout after serving as the team's hitting, infield, and catching coach in 2024. Seven of the squad's 11 returning contributors improved in batting average and nine improved their batting average during conference play under her tutelage last year. Former players Ashley Parello and Hope Yashnik will also assist with coaching duties during the season.
Schedule
Looking to make a fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, the Spartans start with six challenging games at the NFCA Division III Leadoff Classic. CWRU will face top-ranked East Texas Baptist, second-ranked Linfield, fifth-ranked Belhaven, sixth-ranked Tufts, 10th-ranked Trine, and DePauw in Columbus, Georgia, from February 28-March 2. The Spartans were joined by ETBU, Linfield, Belhaven, and Tufts at the NCAA Finals last year, with the top-ranked Tigers winning the national championship over the fifth-ranked Blazers.
The team then embarks on a trip to the City of Angels for 10 non-conference games in the greater Los Angeles area. The excursion includes doubleheaders against 22nd-ranked Redlands, Chapman, and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and single matchups with 24th-ranked Bethel, Illinois Wesleyan, Haverford, and Whittier. The Spartans have three additional non-conference doubleheaders, hosting Capital on March 27 and Denison on March 30 at Mather Park and traveling to Alliance, Ohio, to face Mount Union on May 4.
CWRU will begin its quest to win its fourth consecutive UAA Championship in a different-looking conference. The University of Chicago rejoins the UAA in 2025, giving the association seven competing teams for the first time ever. League members will play a three-game series against the other six teams for a total of 18 scheduled conference games, two fewer than in the previous format.
The Spartans will start their title defense at WashU, who received votes in the preseason NFCA Top 25, before a trip to Atlanta to face Emory, the last team to win at least four consecutive league titles (2010-16), to start April. Case Western Reserve's first home conference series will be against NYU on April 11 and 12, followed by a visit from new league mate Chicago on April 18 and 19. CWRU will celebrate its seniors on the second day of that series. A trip to Waltham, Massachusetts, for a series against Brandeis follows the games against the Maroons, and the Spartans will finish conference play at home against rival Carnegie Mellon on May 8 and 9.
A conference championship would guarantee the team its sixth all-time trip to the NCAA Tournament. Absent a league title, Case Western Reserve would need to be one of the top 21 teams ranked in the NCAA Power Index (NPI) that do not receive an automatic bid by winning their conferences. NPI, which replaces the regional and national committee selection process, is new for all Division III team sports for the 2024-25 academic year and uses a combination of winning percentage and strength of schedule, with a bonus for defeating top teams.
Should the Spartans make the postseason, the Regional Round is scheduled for May 15-17 and the Super Regional Round is scheduled for May 22-23, both at campus sites. The 2025 NCAA Division III Softball Championship will be hosted by Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington, Illinois, from May 29 to June 4.
