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Bridget Orchard
Last Updated on September 26, 2024
Seventh Season at Villanova
28th Season Overall
Record at Villanova: 182-122 (.599)
Career Record: 934-542-3 (.633)
NCAA Tournament: 10-22 (10 Appearances)
Alma Mater: Villanova '97
Unprecedented success has followed Villanova head coach Bridget Orchard at every step of her softball career beginning with her playing days as an All-Star infielder for the Wildcats and continuing with an incredible level of success on a national level during her head coaching career. Orchard is in her seventh season leading her alma mater in 2025 and her 28th season as a collegiate head coach overall. She begins the season with a career record of 934-542-3 (.633), including 182-122 (.599) over her first six seasons back in the Villanova dugout.
As of 2024, Orchard's Wildcats had been the top program in the BIG EAST since her arrival back to campus, owning the most overall and BIG EAST wins since 2019. And the 2024 campaign lived up to that billing with the 'Cats winning their third BIG EAST title ever and making a deeper run in the NCAA Tournament than ever before. It was a historic season from the very beginning of conference play with the Wildcats starting the BIG EAST slate on a nine-game win streak and storming their way to the first league regular season title and most BIG EAST wins in program history. Villanova entered the conference championship as the #1 seed and proved it, sweeping its three opponents and capturing a third title in just six seasons under Orchard.
The 'Cats got sent to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and despite a stumble on day one against No. 17 Arizona, Villanova achieved more wins the next day than in the previous 45-plus seasons of the program. VU took down Southeast Missouri State on Saturday afternoon to stay alive, then toppled host No. 16 Arkansas that evening for the first seeded team to be knocked out in that year's tournament. The Wildcats couldn't outlast Arizona the following day, but had still completed the most successful season in program history with a Regional Final appearance. Orchard and her assistants received the BIG EAST Co-Coaching Staff honor in addition to Mideast Region NFCA Coaching Staff of the Year, one of just 11 programs in the running for National Staff of the Year.
The 2023 season marked the first time VU has ever begun a season as back-to-back conference champions, and Orchard's Wildcats once again impressed with a third-straight finals appearance. After a difficult non-conference schedule featuring 13 top 100 opponents, the 'Cats earned the two seed in the BIG EAST Tournament with a 37-22 record and defeated host Connecticut in a do-or-die game before earning runner-up honors in the championship game. Villanova had a league-high six players on the all-conference team, including the BIG EAST Player of the Year in Tess Cites who also picked up an All-Region Second Team nod.
The list of firsts for the Wildcats during the 2021 season is a long one from a program-defining season which began with uncertainty amidst national and local surges in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Orchard and her Villanova team persevered through the year to emerge with a 37-15 record, the program’s first-ever BIG EAST title and a berth in an NCAA regional for the first time in school history. The Wildcats traveled to Arizona and defeated UMBC for the first NCAA Tournament victory in the program’s 45 years as a varsity sport.
Following that would be no easy feat, as Orchard and the ‘Cats began the year as the favorites to take home the BIG EAST crown. Her VU squad went 32-24 in 2022, including an 11-5 mark at the Villanova Softball Complex. Villanova entered the BIG EAST Championship as the third overall seed, but proved its 2021 run was no fluke. The Wildcats won each of their first two rounds, and proceeded to take down Connecticut in the final for the program’s second straight BIG EAST title. Villanova allowed no runs throughout the course of the conference tournament, outscoring its three opponents 6-0. Orchard’s team made a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history, nearly toppling South Dakota State in the NCAA Regional.
As in 2021, the ‘Cats student-athletes took home some impressive hardware after their second straight BIG EAST title. Paige Rauch, one of the most dominant players in college softball, earned an All-BIG EAST First Team nod and her fourth NFCA Mideast All-Region, while shortstop Megan Kern was selected to her first all-region team and All-BIG EAST First Team. Chloe Smith was named to the All-BIG EAST Second Team, while Rauch, Smith, Tess Cites and Kelsey White earned All-Tournament Team. In addition, Victoria Sebastian was selected as the the Inaugural Rawlings Gold Glove award winner for first base.
In a 2021 season where nothing came easily for college athletic teams on or off the field, perhaps the BIG EAST Championship was a fitting test for a program on the doorstep of national significance. After the Wildcats lost their opening game of the conference tournament to host Connecticut, the team regrouped and reeled off four consecutive victories in elimination games to celebrate their first BIG EAST title. First was an unexpected do-or-die game between the top two seeds in the tournament on the opening night of the championship. Villanova and #1 seed DePaul had each lost earlier in the day, but it was the Wildcats who bounced back and exploded late for a 9-1 win which eliminated the defending champions. Villanova powered past Butler, 14-5, the next day and advanced to ‘Championship Saturday’ needing to beat the Huskies twice on their home field. A game-tying grand slam in the sixth inning of the first game forced a winner-take-all contest just 30 minutes later and the Wildcats won that game, 6-1, before dogpiling on the infield with the BIG EAST trophy in hand. It was only the fifth time in the 34-year history of the tournament that a team pushed its way to the BIG EAST title after losing its opening game of the Championship.
Villanova gathered in Finneran Pavilion back on campus one day later to watch the NCAA Tournament selection show, another first for the program. The Wildcats were selected for the Tucson Regional hosted by Arizona and traveled west where they tallied a win over UMBC and fell twice to Southeastern Conference foe Ole Miss. The NCAA regional was the ninth in Orchard’s head coaching career and the sixth time that she guided her teams to at least one NCAA victory.
As was the case with the success on the field, the recognition for the Wildcats student-athletes was similarly historic. It started with one of the most dominant players in college softball, Paige Rauch, who became the second player in Villanova history to be an NFCA All-American when she was selected to the third team All-America squad following the season. It wasn’t the only history that Rauch made during the year. She also became the first player in BIG EAST history to be named the conference Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in the same season. Rauch was a unanimous first team All-BIG EAST selection, swept the two major awards and was a first team NFCA All-Region honoree for the third time in her career. During the season she broke the Wildcats all-time career records for home runs and walks, and she also became the program’s all-time career leader in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS. As a pitcher, she broke a 20-year-old record and set a new Villanova single-season mark with nine shutouts. Rauch started all five games of the BIG EAST Championship on the mound and pitched 28 of 35 innings during the conference tournament. Her three-run home run in the final inning of the championship game was an exclamation point for the tournament, and perhaps for the entire season. She was named the Championship’s Most Outstanding Player.
Villanova finished the 2021 season as the BIG EAST leader in batting average (.296), on-base percentage (.387), slugging percentage (.486), scoring (5.63 runs per game), home runs (1.13 home runs per game), doubles (34), walks (187), shutouts (11) and most importantly winning percentage (.712). The Wildcats set single-season program records for OPS (.873), home runs (59) and walks while tying its single-season record with 293 runs scored.
Orchard laid the groundwork for the historic 2021 season over the previous two years with campaigns that were successful, if maybe just somewhat incomplete. Villanova went 29-24 in her first season as head coach in 2019 and made a run to the championship game of the BIG EAST Championship, which was then still a single-elimination tournament. The Wildcats held a six-run lead against DePaul in the championship game before the Blue Demons battled back to claim the conference title. Villanova carried the momentum from that season – with a renewed hunger to break through for a BIG EAST championship – into the 2020 campaign which ended prematurely due to COVID after 27 games and a 14-13 record.
It was not as if the steps the Wildcats were taking in 2019 and 2020 went unnoticed. Rauch was named a Softball America Shortened Season All-American in 2020 and came in at No. 25 on the Softball America ranking of the top 100 players in the nation for during the 2020 season. She had been a revelation during her first season at Villanova in 2019, winning the BIG EAST Player of the Year award unanimously and setting numerous single-season Wildcats records. She was a first team All-BIG EAST selection and Giampolo was a second team honoree for the 2019 season. Rauch was a first team NFCA Mideast All-Region pick; she and Giampolo were All-ECAC selections.
The steps forward that Villanova made on the field over Orchard's first three seasons are of course just part of the story. Under Orchard’s watch the Wildcats have been all-stars academically and among the best and brightest student-athletes nationwide. Villanova ranked 17th among all Division I softball programs with a 3.68 team grade-point average for the 2020-21 academic year. Rauch was a third team Academic All-American to go along with her on-field All-America accolades. In Orchard’s first three seasons as head coach the Wildcats had 27 Easton/NFCA Scholar-Athletes, 57 selections to the BIG EAST All-Academic Team and 97 appearances on the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll for having a semester GPA of 3.2 or higher. The team which won the BIG EAST title in 2021 had all 20 of its student-athletes named to the conference All-Academic Team.
Orchard was a star at Villanova from the very beginnings of her association with Wildcats program. Her arrival as a freshman second baseman in 1994 coincided with the first year or regular season BIG EAST softball competition. Orchard hit safely in each of the first 14 games of her collegiate career, a feat which had not been accomplished before and has not been matched since by a Villanova player. She helped the Wildcats win a then-program record 29 games her freshman season. That year was followed by the first two 30-win campaigns in school history in 1995 (34-23) and 1996 (33-19). Villanova went 120-91 (.569) during her undergraduate career.
At the time of her graduation in 1997, Orchard was the Wildcats all-time career record holder with 216 career hits and 110 runs scored. She earned first team All-BIG EAST honors in 1995 and led Villanova to an ECAC title a year later while ranking as the second-toughest batter to strike out in the nation. Orchard was a .334 career hitter for the Wildcats, stole 35 bases and played in 205 consecutive games which remains the second-longest streak in school history. In all she started 206 of the 212 games (97.2%) Villanova played during her career.
Orchard came back to her alma mater to take over the reins of the program from her own collegiate head coach Maria DiBernardi, who won 880 games over 34 years as head coach.
Orchard had been the head coach at Fordham for the previous 17 seasons where she built the Rams into a perennial power in the Atlantic 10 Conference while taking her teams to eight NCAA regionals and earning seven Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year awards.
In all, the numbers for Orchard during her time at Fordham are staggering. She won 624 games in 17 seasons and led a coaching staff which earned two NFCA Mid-Atlantic Region Staff of the Year awards. Orchard coached one All-American and saw her student-athletes be named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year (five times), Pitcher of the Year (three times) and Rookie of the Year (seven times). Fordham also produced five Academic All-Americans, 25 Academic All-Conference honorees and two Atlantic 10 Student-Athletes of the Year while totaling 82 All-Atlantic 10 selections, 48 NFCA Mid-Atlantic All-Region picks and 13 ECAC All-Stars under Orchard’s watch.
Orchard closed her career with the Rams by winning six consecutive Atlantic 10 titles and seven in the last eight seasons. Her 2018 squad won 33 games, went 18-4 in regular season league action and then won three more contests by a combined 18-5 margin in the conference tournament. Orchard comes to the Wildcats with a career record of 753-420-3 (.642) in 21 years as a head coach. She was 624-378-1 (.623) at Fordham, and previously won 129 games over four seasons at nearby Cabrini in her first head coaching stint.
When Orchard was hired at Fordham in May 2001, she inherited a program that had never previously posted a winning season dating back to 1985. After the Rams won just 178 total games in their first 17 varsity seasons, Orchard increased the program’s victory total to over 800 wins in the next 17 years. Her teams won at least 32 games in each of the last 16 years. Her 2018 team featured Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year Paige Rauch, and Fordham earned a total of nine postseason awards thanks to three first team All-Atlantic 10 honorees, two second members, Rauch on the All-Rookie team and a pair of student-athletes on the academic all-conference squad.
Two seasons in particular during Orchard’s time with the Rams stick out above the rest and are indicative of the breadth of success she achieved. Her 2010 team set a school record with 49 wins, earned votes in one of the national top 25 polls and earned the program’s first-ever at-large NCAA Championship selection. Fordham closed the regular season on a 21-game winning streak and then defended its at-large berth with a pair of NCAA Regional victories. In all, the Rams set 44 school records in 2010 and finished the year 49-12 overall.
Orchard’s 2017 team also made a splash nationally, earning upwards of 10 votes in the NFCA/USA Today National Coaches poll on two occasions. Fordham won 46 games to trail only the 2010 squad, and the Rams won their second straight regular season Atlantic 10 title and third in the past four years. Her senior class concluded their careers with conference rings from all four of their seasons in the Bronx.
The team’s overall success was the result of the coaching staff being able to develop star student-athletes both on and off the field. Jen Mineau was a two-time All-American in 2010 and 2011, became one of four student-athletes under Orchard to earn Academic All-America honors and also was the 2010 Atlantic 10 Student-Athlete of the Year. Erin Brooks was the first Academic All-American for Orchard, a distinction she earned in both 2003 and 2004. Mary Beth Puccio followed in 2008, while Mineau (2011) and Michele Daubman also reached that distinction.
After the conclusion of her collegiate playing career Orchard was nearly immediately appointed the head coach at Cabrini, where she would proceed to go 129-42-2 over the next four seasons. She led the Cavaliers to two straight NCAA Tournament bids, and her teams were an NCAA East Regional finalist in 2001 as well as previously being an NCAA Atlantic Regional finalist in 2000. Cabrini won three straight Pennsylvania Athletic Conference regular season titles under Orchard, and the team was ranked No. 10 in the nation by USA Today in 2001.
During her final season at Cabrini in 2001, the Cavaliers led Division III in hitting, pitching and fielding. Cabrini finished third at the NFCA Leadoff Classic and also won both the Cortland/Ithaca and Salisbury State tournaments. Orchard guided the Cavaliers to a 42-5 overall record and a 21-1 conference tally in 2001, and was named the Division III East Regional Coach of the Year. She was also a three-time PAC Coach of the Year at Cabrini, and was selected to coach the USA Athletes International Team in Germany in 2000.
In addition to her coaching responsibilities at Cabrini, Orchard was also the school’s Director of Student Activities from 1999-01. She was inducted into the Cabrini College Athletic Hall of Fame for her coaching accomplishments in 2013.
Returning to Villanova was a homecoming in more ways than one for Orchard, as both she and her husband Jay are Wildcats alums. The couple has two sons – Lucas, a basketball player at Monmouth, and Zachary, Villanova Class of 2028 – and a daughter, Isabelle.
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