Westminster tops PAC preseason coaches' poll

2/13/2026 2:00:00 PM

TRAFFORD, Pa.--The Westminster softball team was voted the favorite in this year's Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Preseason Coaches' Poll, which was released Friday afternoon with the league's annual Players to Watch List.

The poll was voted on by the PAC's 12 head coaches.

Westminster, led by 30th-year head coach Jan Reddinger, secured nine first-place votes and 117 total points. Last spring, Westminster won the PAC Championship Tournament title for the second-straight year and secured the league's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. The Titans wrapped up the season with a 28-13 overall record.

Geneva was second with a pair of first-place votes and 108 points. Grove City was third with 102 points and Allegheny was fourth with the final first-place vote and 93 points. Waynesburg was fifth (70), Bethany was sixth (69), Hiram was seventh (58), Washington & Jefferson was eighth (51), Saint Vincent was ninth (43), Thiel was 10th (41), Chatham was 11th (28) and Franciscan was 12th (12).

Four Westminster players were mentioned in the Players to Watch List: juniors Faith Jones (Volant, Pa., Wilmington) and Ava Karpa (Coraopolis, Pa., Moon) and sophomores Lily Jordan (Rural Valley, Pa., West Shamokin) and Cheyenne Piper (Latrobe, Pa., Ligonier Valley).

Jones, a catcher, was named a National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III All-Region selection after earning First Team All-PAC. She hit .412 in 38 starts last season to go along with nine doubles, two triples, 33 RBIs and 28 runs scored. She had 13 multi-hit games and 11 multi-RBI games in 2025. Jones posted a .444 on-base percentage, a .521 slugging percentage and .965 OPS. Jones was one of Westminster's four players named to the league's all-tournament team last May.

A shortstop, Karpa was named Second Team All-PAC for the second-straight year. In 35 starts last spring she hit .330 with nine doubles, six home runs, 33 RBIs and 29 runs scored. Karpa finished the year with a .398 on-base percentage and a .578 slugging percentage. She recorded a career-best 23-game hitting streak between March 13 and April 16. Karpa was named a College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District^® honoree last May.

Jordan, a first baseman, made 41 starts last year, hitting .354 with seven doubles, a triple, five home runs, 34 RBIs and 22 runs scored. She finished up her first year with a .410 on-base percentage, a .538 slugging percentage and a .948 OPS. Jones registered 11 multi-hit performances and had nine multi-RBI games in 2025. She was named to the league's all-tournament team last season.

Piper was recognized as the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Pitcher of the Year last May. The selection to the All-ECAC team came on the heels of being honored as an All-Region selection. A First Team All-Region VII pick, Piper was the program's first all-region first team selection since Jazmyn Rohrer in 2018. She earned the PAC's Pitcher of the Year award and the league's Newcomer of the Year award.

A right-hander, Piper finished her freshman season with a 17-6 record and 1.71 earned-run average (ERA) in 20 starts (26 appearances). She fired 17 complete games with a school-record nine shutouts in 147.0 innings pitched. Piper's 168 strikeouts rank third among the program's all-time leaders while her 17 victories are tied for fourth-most in program history. She has three of Westminster's top 10 single-game strikeout performances, including a 15-strikeout effort in the Titans' 4-3, 16-inning victory over Thiel last April. She was named to the All-Tournament Team and scored Most Outstanding Player honors following last year's PAC Championship Tournament after going 3-0 with three shutouts, 13 strikeouts and three walks over 19.0 innings pitched during Westminster's run to its second-straight PAC title. The No. 2 seed in the championship tournament, Westminster did not allow a run in its three tournament wins, turning in an 11-0, five-inning win over No. 6 Thiel on May 1, a 6-0 win over top-seeded Grove City on May 2 and a 7-0 title-clinching shutout over Grove City on May 8.

This year's PAC Tournament will feature the top six teams playing in a double-elimination playoff beginning Thursday, April 30 and run through Saturday, May 2, 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 (ODAC) and the City of Salem at Moyer Park in Salem, Va.

Westminster opens its season at THE Spring Games in central Florida, taking on Alfred and Nichols on Sunday, March 8 at Clermont's Hancock Complex.

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