Fisher Softball Ends Season Ranked No. 2 By NFCA; Ithaca No. 16.
The final National Fastpitch Coaches Association released its final poll this week with St. John Fisher vaulting all the way to No. 2, while Ithaca remained at No. 16. The Cardinals, who were receiving votes in the national poll at the end of the regular-season, ranked as high as No. 12 earlier in the year.
The No. 2 ranking is the highest any Fisher team in any sport has been ranked in a final national coaches poll.
This year, Fisher set records for most wins in a single-season with 41, claimed the first-ever regional title and earned its first trip to the NCAA Division III Women's College World Series.
The Cardinals (41-12) finished third in the CWS and was one game shy of making it to the championship round after forcing an elimination game with University of Texas-Tyler, the eventual national champions.
Standout pitcher Lindsey Thayer was the program's first All-American First Team selection by the NFCA and was named to the CWS All-Tournament team. She broke her own single-season record in strikeouts with 467 (second-highest single-season total in Division III history), giving her a total of 761 in her first two seasons.
Back on March 14th, against the Rochester Institute of Technology, her 20 strikeouts tied her for ninth in the NCAA single-season record book.
The Cardinals finished the year out with six players earning Empire 8 All-Conference honors and three earning NFCA Northeast All-Region recognition.
"It was obviously a great season for us and our players worked extremely hard to have the success we enjoyed this past spring," says third-year head Bari Mance, who has been with the Fisher softball program since 1999. "Now that we've had a taste of the College World Series, I think everyone in our program wants to do the work this off-season to make sure we can get back there again."
Ithaca registered the most wins (35-10) in the program since 2008. The Bombers fell in the in the Super Regional Round of the NCAA Division III Softball Championship to Rowan University, 4-3. Ithaca won the Empire 8 conference championship and hosted the first two round of the NCAA Division III Softball Championship.
2016 Final Poll
| Rank |
Team |
Record |
Points |
Previous |
| 1 |
Texas-Tyler (8) |
49-5 |
200 |
3 |
| 2 |
St. John Fisher |
41-12 |
191 |
|
| 3 |
Messiah |
47-6 |
185 |
11 |
| 4 |
Rowan |
42-11 |
172 |
15 |
| 5 |
Emory |
46-8 |
160 |
9 |
| 6 |
East Texas Baptist |
35-10 |
157 |
8 |
| 7 |
MIT |
34-14 |
155 |
|
| 8 |
Illinois Wesleyan |
35-13 |
144 |
18 |
|
St. Thomas (Minn.) |
43-8 |
144 |
12 |
| 10 |
Luther |
40-5 |
106 |
5 |
|
Texas Lutheran |
43-5 |
106 |
6 |
| 12 |
Virginia Wesleyan |
38-7 |
100 |
1 |
| 13 |
Linfield |
32-16 |
98 |
20 |
| 14 |
Berry (Ga.) |
39-8 |
90 |
4 |
| 15 |
Salisbury |
37-6 |
84 |
2 |
| 16 |
Ithaca |
35-10 |
71 |
16 |
| 17 |
Birmingham-Southern |
37-10 |
69 |
7 |
|
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps |
37-10-1 |
69 |
13 |
| 19 |
Manhattanville |
41-5 |
51 |
19 |
| 20 |
Christopher Newport |
35-9 |
48 |
10 |
| 21 |
Worcester Polytechnic |
38-9 |
31 |
22 |
| 22 |
Alma |
33-10 |
28 |
14 |
|
Trine |
33-14 |
28 |
|
| 24 |
Benedictine (Ill.) |
38-17 |
25 |
|
| 25 |
Williams |
35-11 |
20 |
21 |