The Radford University softball program was selected to finish fifth in the Big South’s 2022 preseason poll, the league announced Tuesday.
The softball program has multiple starters returning from the 2021 season and will be under the direction of first-year head coach Alisa Tasler. The Highlanders will lean on the experience of veterans Jessie Marvin, Lindsay Hunter, and Hannah Morris while looking to some new faces for production with six freshmen set to make their collegiate debuts.
A majority of the Highlanders’ voters selected them to finish in fourth place as the team received three selections in that ranking. The team also received two votes each to finish fifth, sixth, and seventh with one vote to finish eighth. Radford finished two points ahead of sixth-place Presbyterian in the voting and was 11 points behind fourth-place Winthrop.
Campbell was selected as the preseason favorite while USC Upstate and Longwood also received first-place votes.
Selected as the conference’s preseason Player of the Year was Campbell’s Bri Bryant.
Named the preseason Pitcher of the Year was Longwood’s Sydney Backstrom.
The rankings in the preseason poll were as follows:
- Campbell (six first-place votes and 94 points)
- USC Upstate (three first-place votes and 90 points)
- Longwood (one first-place vote and 81 points)
- Winthrop, 65 points
- Radford, 54 points.
- Presbyterian, 52 points
- Charleston Southern, 41 points
- Hampton, 36 points
- Gardner-Webb, 24 points
- North Carolina A&T, 23 points