The Kansas softball team last made the NCAA Tournament in 2015. Since then, throughout a period spanning the entirety of head coach Jennifer McFalls’ tenure and more, the Jayhawks have been fighting to carve out their place in a conference featuring some of the sport’s most dominant teams.
It was almost twice as long ago that KU had last won a Big 12 Conference tournament matchup, but McFalls’ Jayhawks did that in dramatic fashion at the end of last year.
In a game that took place over the course of two days due to inclement weather, KU jumped out to an early lead over No. 8 Oklahoma State on May 11, lost it on May 12, then poured on four runs in the seventh inning before freshman pitcher Lizzy Ludwig shut the door on the Cowboys and clinched an 8-7 win.
The Jayhawks went no further, as they lost to Texas in five innings the same day. But looking back on that OSU win — the first conference tournament victory since 2007 — with eight months’ distance, McFalls said it showed her players they can compete in the league, encouraging them to “set the standards a little bit higher, and the expectations higher for what we want to be able to accomplish this season.”
The coach is setting her own sights high, too.
“This is a year I actually am confident saying I think we have a chance to truly get into postseason,” McFalls said Tuesday. “… I think if we’re a team that falls in the middle of the pack of the Big 12, we can easily set ourselves up for getting into postseason, but again, that’s our No. 1 goal, is just getting to the ‘Big Dance.'”
KU previously competed in the National Invitational Softball Championship, a secondary postseason tournament, to conclude its 2022 campaign, but McFalls will seek to return to the NCAA Tournament after going to it eight straight years as an assistant at Texas.
Becoming a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 school will look a bit different this year, as what was previously a seven-team league adds BYU, Houston and UCF. McFalls said it will be “up for grabs” for schools to “fall in” behind the likes of OU and Texas.
KU was picked eighth, ahead of only Iowa State and Houston, in the preseason poll, after finishing 25-27 (5-13 Big 12) last year.
“Once again, we’re kind of the underdogs as far as when it comes to the rankings, and I think the way people sort of perceive us,” McFalls said, “but I think the word started to get out the end of the last season that we’re a lot better than maybe our record indicated.”
McFalls, who is entering her sixth year at the helm, received a contract extension following the 2023 season, as athletic director Travis Goff praised her “track record of building a healthy culture, developing her student-athletes both off and on the field, and creating momentum in recruiting.”
That set the tone for an offseason of continuity. The Jayhawks lost a few key contributors to graduation, such as Shayna Espy and Haleigh Harper, but did not have a single player transfer in or out — a rarity in modern college sports.
“Our chemistry is just really good,” McFalls said. “The culture of our program’s in a good place.”
That ethos filters down from a group of eight seniors this season: “They’re not ready to be done,” McFalls said. The likes of longtime pitcher Kasey Hamilton, who has pitched 279 2/3 innings the last two years and improved her ERA to 3.96 in 2023, as well as position players like catcher Lyric Moore (a team-high .303 batting average in 2023) and utility player Angela Price, will be called upon to set the tone.
Junior Olivia Bruno, who led the Jayhawks in home runs (nine), RBIs (26), OPS (.939) and walks (30), will continue to serve as a cornerstone of the KU offense. Other key returners in the field who started a majority of last year’s games include super-senior Ashlyn Anderson, senior Savanna DesRochers (who also pitches), junior Sara Roszak, and sophomore outfielders Presley Limbaugh and Aynslee Linduff and utility player Hailey Cripe.
McFalls said she has seen significant improvement from the team at the plate in the fall.
That’s an encouraging sign because as a team the Jayhawks were worst in the Big 12 in most offensive stats last season.
Their pitching, though, was fifth in ERA, with Hamilton occupying the bulk of the innings and then-freshman Ludwig embracing late-game situations.
“Lizzy loved the opportunity to come in and close games down,” McFalls said. “And she proved that right away as a freshman, that she didn’t care if there was a run on third base and the game was tied.”
Ludwig, who had a team-best 2.72 ERA and was a Big 12 all-freshman pick, may be in line for more starts this year after receiving five last season.
Katie Brooks and Addison Purvis return as the Jayhawks’ other primary options in the circle; DesRochers and Bruno have also pitched and freshman Anna Soles could be in the mix.
They have a new pitching coach in Laura Heberling, who was officially hired Dec. 21. McFalls said she’s already seen Heberling’s impact borne out in increased confidence among the pitchers, though she’s bonded with the team as a whole.
Also new this year, besides Soles, are three additional freshmen in the field in Abby Carsley, September Flanagan and Kadence Stafford. McFalls said any of the four could chip in “in some way, shape or form” in any game this year.
“As a coach, your job is always go out and try to recruit better than what you have,” she said. “And I think that we were able to do that.”
It’s just the latest step in what has been a gradual building process for McFalls — admittedly slower than she expected.
“When I first got here, we ran into COVID,” she said. “And, you know, there was just a couple of years there, where … recruiting was not there for us. And so it just took some time to build. Certainly very excited, and I’m probably more fired up about this team than I ever have been (so) far as a coach, all my years of coaching.”
The season opens in familiar fashion as the Jayhawks face formidable Oregon in the NFCA Classic in Clearwater, Florida, on Feb. 9. This year’s nonconference slate is an opportunity for KU to build early momentum, as opposed to last season when, McFalls said, “we lost some games early on that we just simply should not have lost, and (it) kept us from getting some of the bigger wins that we probably should have or were the ones we needed to get late in the season.”
Oregon is also the same school McFalls coached against to open her first season at the helm in 2019. That team was “not even close to being prepared or ready for that. But this group is.”
Kansas’ Lyric Moore during an NCAA college softball game on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas’ Ashlyn Anderson during an NCAA college softball game on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas’ Olivia Bruno during an NCAA college softball game on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas’ Kasey Hamilton pitches in the third inning of the team’s NCAA college softball game against Oklahoma State in the Big 12 tournament Thursday, May 12, 2022, in Oklahoma City.
Kansas pitcher Addison Purvis during an NCAA college softball game on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo.