From January 3 through the beginning of the regular season, we’re going to take a look at every Division 1 conference and Forecast what to expect in each league this season. Today, we take a look at the Big East.
I. Conference Breakdown
Nine softball compete for a championship in the Big East. Among those teams are Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, UConn, and Villanova.
Because Georgetown elected not to participate in the 2021 season, last year, only eight teams vied for the conference title.
Last season, DePaul won the conference regular-season crown with 13 wins in conference play and only one loss. Villanova emerged victorious from the conference tournament, earning the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Wildcats were the only team to reach the NCAA tournament out of the league.
II. 2022 Award Predictions
Player of the Year: Lauren Fey, Butler
Pitcher of the Year: Paige Rauch, Villanova
Coach of the Year: Bridget Orchard, Villanova
Conference Champions: Villanova Wildcats
III. Who to Watch
Angela Giampolo, Villanova — While Paige Rauch rightfully receives a lot of praise for her endeavors at Nova, don’t miss Giampolo’s impressive efforts as part of the Wildcats’ lineup. She ranks among the top 20 in eleven offensive categories in program history and has started 177 consecutive games for the program. She owns a trio of career all-conference honors, including a second-team nomination last year, and really showed out at the Big East tournament, batting .333 on the weekend with two home runs and ten RBIs en route to helping the Wildcats reach the NCAA tournament.
Butler — The Bulldogs reached the conference tournament last season, as a late fill-in after finishing fifth in the league standings. The 2016 conference champions return a pair of all-conference first-team selections from a season ago, including standout infielder Lauren Fey and pitcher Karli Ricketts. Fey batted .433 last season with a 1.099 OPS, while Ricketts and fellow upper-classman Alyssa Graves combined for a 2.75 ERA and 224 strikeouts across more than 200 innings of work. The Bulldogs know how to pull off a big win and have the pieces in place to make some noise in the conference race.
Jana Sanden, UConn — After winning the conference’s Freshman of the Year award after last season, Sanden returns for her true sophomore campaign in 2022. She led the entire UConn roster in RBIs, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage as a true freshman, while also batting .336 with eight home runs and 22 runs scored. A unanimous all-conference first-team selection, she also showed herself to be sure-handed defensively and notched a 7-game hitting streak late in the year as the Huskies looked to solidify their position in the standings.
DePaul — Last year’s regular-season conference champions, the Blue Demons made an unexpectedly-quick exit from the conference tournament. The squad saw seven all-conference honorees last year, but lost four members of that group to graduation. Some work in the transfer portal will help shore up some of the holes left by those veteran absences, but the Blue Demons need some players to step up and fill some of the gaps left by those departures if they’re going to continue to contend for a title.
IV. Coaching Moves
Seton Hall was the only Big East program to change head coaches this summer, with the Pirates ultimately hiring former Hartford head coach Angie Churchill. Within the assistant ranks, DePaul hired former interim assistant coach Abby Ramirez on a full-time basis; Providence added ex-Holy Cross assistant Kelsey Christiansen; and Creighton brought in former Drake great Nicole Newman as the Blue Jays’ new pitching coach.
V. Storylines to Watch
> Georgetown returns to play this season after the program opted out of playing in 2021.
> Both Villanova (29) and DePaul (57) finished in the top 60 in RPI last season. Despite the skewed RPI metrics, that’s an impressive achievement for the conference.
VI. Burning Questions
* Will the conference’s newly-formed ‘top tier’ pull away from the rest of the pack, or will parity flow through the conference from top to bottom?
VII. Projected Standings
- Villanova
- DePaul
- UConn
- Butler
- Creighton
- St. John’s
- Providence
- Seton Hall
- Georgetown
