Softball | 2/13/2026 2:00:00 PM

TRAFFORD, Pa. (pacathletics.org) - Coming off the program's second consecutive championship, Westminster College earned the top spot in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Softball Coaches' Preseason Poll, which was announced Friday with the conference's Players to Watch list.

The Titans and head coach Jan Reddinger, who is coming into her 30th season at the helm of the program, secured nine first-place votes and 117 points to earn the poll's top position. Westminster repeated as PAC champions after not allowing a run while rolling to a 3-0 record in the 2025 Tournament. After posting shutouts in wins over Thiel College (11-0 in five innings) and Grove City College (6-0) to reach the final, Titan sophomore pitcher Cheyenne Piper (Latrobe, Pa./Ligonier Valley) blanked Grove City again on four hits in a 7-0 victory. That gave the Titans their third league crown, adding 2025 to their titles in 2024 and 2005.

Westminster also went to the NCAA Regionals for the second consecutive year and dropped match-ups against Salisbury and Pfeiffer to finish with a 28-13 record.

Coming in second in this year's poll was Geneva College. The Golden Tornadoes, who finished 31-15 last season, including a 1-2 mark at the NCCAA World Series, had two first-place votes and 108 points. Third place went to Grove City College, who amassed 102 points. Head coach Kristen Cramer, the 2025 PAC Coach of the Year, guided the Wolverines to a 26-13 record, marking the third straight season the program set a new standard for single-season victories, and the top seed for the PAC Tournament for the first time since 1998.

Allegheny College earned the final first-place vote and totaled 93 points to rank fourth in the polling. The Gators were followed by Waynesburg University in fifth (70); Bethany College in sixth (69); Hiram College in seventh (58); Washington & Jefferson College in eighth (51); Saint Vincent College in ninth (43); Thiel College in 10th (41); Chatham University in 11th (28) and Franciscan University (12).

Hiram makes their return to the PAC for their first season since 1989. The Terriers won the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championship in 2021 and have not finished lower than fourth in that league in the last four years, including a third place showing last season.

The 2026 Players to Watch List is highlighted by 27 returning all-conference selections with seven who garnered First Team. Both major awards winners will be back on the field for their teams this season, including Geneva senior shortstop Lexi Zanic, the 2025 PAC Player of the Year, and Piper, who earned last year's Pitcher and Newcomer of the Year.

Zanic's Player of the Year honor marked the third time in the last five years a Geneva player has been recognized and fourth time in program history a Golden Tornado has been selected (Sarah Johnson-2023/2021; Julia DiLonardo-2012). Zanic ranked in the top 10 in the PAC in numerous categories, including eighth in batting average (.416) and RBIs (36), second in on-base percentage (.491), walks (26) and runs scored (46), tied for fourth in hits (57) and sixth in stolen bases (18). In the field, Zanic also ranked second in the league with 81 assists from her shortstop position. 

Piper's Pitcher and Newcomer combo awards is the second time a PAC player has won both of those honors in the same season and first since Waynesburg's Sydney Wilson in 2022. She is also the first Westminster player to win the top first-year award. The right-hander's numbers were outstanding, as she tied for first in the PAC in strikeouts with 155, ranked second with 16 wins and posted a 1.79 earned run average while allowing teams to hit just.178, the lowest average against any PAC pitcher this year.

This year's PAC Tournament will feature the top six teams playing in a double-elimination playoff. The PAC Tournament will begin Thursday, April 30th and run through Saturday, May 2nd, with the conference's top seed as the host.

The winner of this year's championship tournament title also earns the league's automatic qualifying bid to the Division III Softball Championship, with teams and regional site selections released on Monday, May 11.

Regional round play is set for Friday-Sunday, May 14-16 and the Super Regionals will be Friday-Saturday, May 21-22. The eight teams advancing from the Super Regionals will play in the Division III Championship finals, scheduled for May 28th through June 3rd and hosted by the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the City of Salem at Moyer Park in Salem, Va.